I'll Be There
by etherealdiscord
Summary: After the science fair Joan wonders about her relationship with Adam, meanwhile Luke and Grace struggle to sort out their feelings
1. Recap

Author: Payton Tyler  
  
Email: darkserene@glitterbomb.com  
  
Pairing: Jane/Adam, Grace/Luke. Mostly G/L, but J/A. Chapter four is totally G/L  
  
Rating: PG-13   
  
Spoiler: for the end of Jump, don't read if you haven't seen  
  
Disclaimer: I own the story line. Steal=Die. I own nothing else though. Not saying I would mind owning Adam but...   
  
1. Recap  
  
Luke and Grace are putting finishing touches on their project. Adam is looking at someone elses project. Lischak comes around and takes the piece out of   
  
Adams hand. We pan around and see Joan. She is smiling and reaches out her hand - Which is ADAM TAKES Friedman and Glyniss project was a success   
  
and the judges are clapping around them. (I should point out that Luke and Graces project is across the room from their glass tank of water, but directly lined   
  
up) We see Helen looking at other projects and then she hears Adam and Joan laughing and she turns around. They are smiling and Laughing and still holding   
  
hands. Helen turns back around and smiles. Pan back over to Luke and Grace. People have gathered to see their project Ms. Lischak is there as well and   
  
Glynis and Friedman are still at their project across the room.) Luke hands Grace the switch and she turns it on. We get a shot of the scale that isnt moving.   
  
Then all of a sudden the scale goes crazy and all the lights start to dim. The Engine moves a little. 'GET DOWN' and everyone around the project ducks.   
  
Ms. Lischak sees that the engine will be taking off any second and runs to push Glynis out of the way. Friedman ducks but Glynis doesnt and Ms. Lischak   
  
throws herself on top of her just as the engine blast through the big tank of water that was her project. The engine hits another project (a dummy of a   
  
dinosaur) which falls over and knocks a big vat of feathers on to a fan. Feathers are flying everywhere. They are landing on and sticking to Glynis and Ms.   
  
Lischak who are soaked because of the water. Feather still flying we see Adam and Joan picking themselves up. They look around and start laughing. Helen   
  
is laughing and then we go back to Joan and Adam. Adam looks at Joan and kind of puts his hand on her waist and they kiss. We get a close up of the kiss   
  
and then it fades to black. 


	2. Post Project

2. Post Project  
  
"I don't think it was susposed to do that," Grace said, still laughing. Luke shook his head. "I did warn you there was a big chance that it wouldn't work." he looked  
  
around the room. "Woah," he said when he saw Joan and Adam. Grace followed his line of eyesight. "Adam and Joan look like they've made up. Good for them."  
  
Slowly, the people in the room picked themselves off the floor. A few of them glared in Grace and Luke's direction.  
  
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Joan and Adam were breaking their kiss. They looked at each other for a minute in silence. "Yo. You're covered in feathers Jane," Adam said. Joan smiled. She was happy she was 'Jane' again. When Adam had been mad at her and only talking to her when forced to, he called her Joan. "I noticed that. You are too," Joan said, brushing a feather off of Adam's face.   
  
After a minute or two, the science fair continued, as if everyone wasn't covered in feathers and four projects hadn't been distoryed. Ms. Lischak, walked over towards  
  
Luke and Grace, water dripping off of her, feathers stuck in her hair. "That was quite an interesting project. Could one of you tell me what it was susposed to do?" she asked. Grace looked at Luke. "Take it away nerd boy," she told him. "Basically, it was susposed to be a rail gun and move the moter to the end of the rail," he told Ms. Lischak. She nodded and walked away. "Well, that was interesting," Grace said, picking feathers out of her hair. Joan and Adam, still holding hands, made their way over to Luke and Grace. "Guess staying up all night last night didn't serve a purpose," Joan said. Luke turned a pale, reddish color. His sister caught on and smiled. "But then again I could be wrong." Joan looked away for a minute and spotted The Cute Guy/God. Her expression changed from total happiness to frustration in an instant. "Hey, I'll be right back," Joan said. She and Adam looked at each other for a long time, then Joan released his hand and walked away.   
  
"What do you want?!" Joan asked. "Is that anyway to talk to God?" God asked. Joan sighed. "Okay, how's this. What do you want me to do?" "Better. I want you to take an intership with the newspaper," God told her. "At the paper? That's where Kevin works. Why do you want me to go there. Like you'd even tell me," Joan said. God nodded. "Like always, you'll figure it out Joan." Joan sighed and walked back over to her friends. The four teenagers began talking and laughing once Joan returned, and for a half an hour, Joan felt like a normal teenage girl.  
  
The next day, Saturday, Joan walked into the newspaper office, looking for where she had to go. She spotted her brother and walked over to him, tapping him on the shoulder. He spun around. "Joan, what are you doing here?" Kevin asked his sister. Joan help up the internship flyer she had found on the front desk. "You want to get an internship at my job? But what about your job at the book store?" "That's twice a week at night. This is Monday after school for a month. I'll have time. Besides, I was sent by God," Joan told Kevin. He laughed. "You're a little bit crazy," Joan said. An African-American woman walked out of a room next to where Kevin was. "Hey Kevin, who's this?" she asked. "Oh, Rebecca, this is my sister Joan. Joan, this is my boss Rebecca. She's the person you want to talk to," Kevin told her. Joan handed Rebecca the flyer. "Ah, another intern. Here, follow me," Rebecca said. She and Joan walked into the office that Rebecca had just left. A few minutes later, Joan got the internship. "So, we'll see you on Monday Joan," Rebecca said. Joan nodded. "I'll be here. Bye," Joan said, walking out of the newspaper office.  
  
Saturday night, Joan was sitting outside her room finishing her AP Chem homework, when a stone hit her in the head. "Ow!" Joan said, rubbing her head. She leaned over the rail and looked down. "Sorry," Grace called up. "What are you doing here?" Joan called down. "I told Adam that I was coming over and he told me to 'give Jane something'," Grace called up. The door to Joan's room opened and Will walked in. "Joan, get back in here," he told her, walking out. Looking over the rail, he saw Grace. "Hello Grace," he called down, then turned to Joan again. "Kevin told me you applied for an internship at the newspaper," Will said. "Uh, yeah dad. I think trying it out would be fun. Besides, it would look good on college applications," Joan told her father.   
  
Meanwhile, downstairs, the front door opened and Luke stepped out. "Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked Grace. She shrugged. "I went out for a walk and I somehow ended up here," she told him. "Well, I'm glad you wound up here. I wanted to ask you something. Can we go back to the shed and talk?" he asked. "Yeah, sure, whatever," Grace told him. She pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and chucked it up and Joan, hitting her in the head again.  
  
Back in her room, Joan opened up the crumpled piece of paper Grace had chucked at her head. 'Jane - I've looked in the mirror/My world's getting clearer/So wait for me this time. Yo, I don't get the ripples thing, but yeah. At the science fair, when we kissed, did you get that 'feeling'? I dunno. - Adam.' Joan smiled a bit. Typical Adam. But, sinking back into the pillows, she was thrilled that he brought it up. She didn't want to be the one to mention it first.   
  
Once in the shed, Luke closed the door. "Okay, The science fair's over," Luke said. Grace ran her hand along the top of the boat. "Brilliant observaion," she said. Luke sighed. "You didn't let me finish. The science fair is over, so where does that leave us?" Luke asked. Grace stopped and spun around. "What's that mean?" "Before Joan transfered into Chem, you only talked to me when you wanted to cheat off me. Then there was the semi formal, and then the science fair, and now that's all over, so are you gonna go back to ignoring me?" Grace shrugged. "We'll see," she said. She headed for the door, playfully patting Luke on the shoulder, then left. Once the door was closed, Luke sighed again. "Glad we had this talk." 


	3. Chemestry

3. It's About Chemestry  
  
Monday morning, Joan drove Luke to school. For the 15 and 16 year old, there was an unusual silence. "Joan, you're my sister," Luke started. Joan laughed. "According to our parents," she said. "No one ever lets me finish! Since your my sister, you'd tell me if I was a geek, right?" he asked. Joan smiled. "You aren't a geek Luke. A nerd, maybe.." "Hey!" Luke said. "No Luke, you're a science geek, which is totally different from the other kind of geek. Why?" "No reason," he said as they pulled into the school parking lot. Getting out of the car, Joan spotted Cute-Guy-God. "Hey Luke, I'll meet up with you in Chem," she said, pulling her bag out of the car. "Sure, thanks for the ride," Luke said, walking into the school. Joan headed over to God. "I made intern," she told him. "I know Joan. Now I want you to meet and be-friend Kerrie Saunders, the other intern," God said. "Why do I need to meet and be-friend this Kerrie girl?" Joan asked. "You know what I'm going to say Joan," God said. Joan sighed. "What's she look like? I'll try tonight," Joan said. "Red hair, green eyes, desk right next to hers. Now hurry or you'll be late for class," God said, walking away. The warning bell went off, and Joan ran into the building.   
  
Joan ran into Chem the second the bell went off and fell into her seat between Adam and Grace. "Ah, Miss Girardi, thank you for joining us," Ms. Lischak said. Joan nodded, out of breath. The class begun, and the class tuned out. "Hey, I got your note," Joan told Adam. "I know," he said, pointing to Grace. Adam and Joan launched into a Adam/Jane conversation, causing Grace to have to tune out her two friends as well as her teacher. "And due to last months projects turnout, I will be chosing your partners," Ms. Lischak said, causing the whole class to tune back in. She began reading off the list, then stopped. "Alright, this isn't going to work. Forget about that. Go, chose your partners. Two to a group," she said. Joan reached out and took Adam's hand under the table, sealing their fate. Luke spun around in his chair. "Grace-" "Sure," she said. "How come I never get to finish my sentences?" Luke said under his breath. "Because you're predictable," Grace told him. Unaware to Luke and Grace's partnership, Glynis turned to Luke. "Hey Luke, wanna be partners?" she asked with a smile. "Um, sorry Glyniss, I've already got one. "Right, of course," Glynis said, sinking down into the seat.   
  
That afternoon, Joan headed to her first day at her internship. She was getting out at four and meeting Adam at her house to work on their project, among other things. Taking a seat at her new desk, she looked at the clock. 2:10. She began going through some of the paperwork on her desk when a red haired girl showed up. She took the desk next to Joan's. 'Meet and be-friend Kerrie Saunders' God's voice echoed through her mind. She turned to Kerrie. "Hey, I'm Joan," Joan said. Kerrie nodded. "Kerrie Saunders," Kerrie responded. Part one accomplished.  
  
At the Girardi household, the only other teenager in the house who wasn't at work, was pacing back and forth in the shed when he heard a loud noise. Opening the shed door, he saw a black van pull into the driveway. Grace opened the door and stepped out. She walked into the shed. "Hey nerd boy," she called. "Grace, can you please stop calling me that?" Luke asked. "Um..Yeah.. Sorry.." Grace said. "So.. Any idea what this project's about?" "Chemestry," Luke joked. Grace rolled her eyes and took a step up to Luke. "Duh," she said. "Since we're in chemestry, it would obviousally be-" "About chemestry?" Luke finished. Both of them had stopped talking about the class. Caught up in the moment, Luke grew a backbone. He put his hand on Grace's cheek and pulled her to him for a kiss. After a second, Grace stepped back. "I just remembered. I've got somewhere I've got to be. Cya," Grace said, fleeing the shed for the second time that week. "Why does this keep happening to me?" Luke asked.  
  
"Jane." Kerrie looked over at Joan's desk. She wasn't there. She looked up at the guy. "Sorry, no one named Jane works here," Kerrie said. Adam looked at her with a spaced out look. She saw Joan come out of the bathroom. Joan spotted the space boy. "Adam?" she asked. Kerrie watched intently. "Jane, yo," he said. The two hugged. "I thought you said your name was Joan," Kerrie said. "Oh, it is, Jane's sort of my nickname I guess," Joan told Kerrie. "No, you're just Jane," Adam told her. Joan laughed. "What are you doing here?" "It's four ten. We've got that AP Chem thing. Do you even know what it's about?" "Wasn't paying attention. Luke will probably know," Joan told her. She turned to Kerrie. "See you next week." "Yeah, next week," Kerrie said. As Joan and Adam walked away, hand in hand, neither heard Kerrie add on 'if I live that long'.  
  
Once at the Girardi house, Adam waited on the couch with Joan searched for her brother. She found him in his room, sitting on his bed. "Hey nerd boy," Joan called, walking into his room. "Don't call me that," Luke said quietly. Joan plopped down on her brothers bed. "What's wrong?" "Nothing," Luke said, pulling apart a piece of paper. "What do you need?" "Well, I needed to know what the chemestry project was-" Joan started. "Not kissing your partner," Luke muttered. Then he looked up at his sister. "I said that out loud, didn't I?" Joan nodded. "You have such a crush on Grace. It's accually creepy. C'mon, what happened?" Joan asked. Luke told her. "If it's worth anything, I'll talk to her," Joan said. Luke shrugged. "Go for it," he said. Joan nodded. She got up to leave, then remembered what she had come up to ask in the first place. "What was the chem project anyway?" Joan asked. Luke laughed.   
  
Authors Note: Sort of lame, I know, but I'm trying 


	4. Discovery

Authors Note: I know I said this would be all G/L, but it was such a stupid chapter. So I re-wrote it.  
  
4. Discovery  
  
The next day, Adam was cutting chem. Joan and Grace were filling out their lab sheets, when Joan looked up at Grace. The table in front of her was empty, the three were giving a demonstration. Joan turned back to Grace.   
  
"You know my brother has a crush on you," Joan said, looking at what Glynis was doing, and writing it down.   
  
"I kind of figured that out," Grace told her.   
  
"So, how do you feel about him?" Joan asked, still taking notes. The three sat back down.   
  
"Joan, stop being an inermeary," Grace said. The bell went off and Grace left Joan behind. Joan picked up her books and walked out of the room, where she was confronted by Goth-God.   
  
"Joan, what did I tell you?" he asked. They began to walk towards the lunch room.   
  
"A lot of stuff," Joan said.   
  
"Joan, stop medeling in your brothers love life and be-friend Kerrie."   
  
"God your demanding," Joan said. She paused for a second.   
  
"That was a lame unintentinal pun," Joan said. God looked like he was going to laugh for a second.   
  
"Look Joan, I'm God. Trust me."  
  
"Okay, okay. Next week. Promise."  
  
"Joan. After school. Go."  
  
"Fine," Joan said, sighing, God nodded and walked away. Joan entered the lunch room, grabbed some unidentifiable food, and headed outside. She spotted Grace and Adam sitting on the steps.   
  
"Hey guys," she said, sitting next to Adam.   
  
"Hey Jane."   
  
"See you later Adam," Grace said, walking away. Joan called after her, but she didn't stop.   
  
"I think she's made at you Jane."  
  
"Yeah. Oh, Adam, I can't comeover tonight, I've got to work, sorry," Joan said, Adam looked dissapointed,  
  
"But you worked yesterday?"  
  
"Yeah. This is a different kind. If it helps any, I'm on a mission for God," Joan said. Adam shook his head.  
  
"You're a little crazy Jane."  
  
Joan slammed her locker shut and spun around and saw Grace walking down the hall. "Grace!" she yelled. Grace stopped and walked over to Joan.  
  
"Let me break it down for you, I'm mad at you. I am avoiding you. Therefor, I'm not talking to you," she said, walking away. Joan shook her head and walked down the hall to Luke's locker.   
  
"Hey, pin head, I've gotta go to work, and mom already left, can you get a ride home?" Joan asked.   
  
"Probably not," Luke told her, putting his backpack on. Joan looked up at the celing.  
  
"Why me?" she asked.   
  
"Hey Jane!" Adam said, appearing out of nowhere. Joan looked at him. "Adam, I need your help."  
  
"Sure, what do you need?"   
  
"Can you drop Luke off at my house?"  
  
"Unchallenged," Adam said, nodding.   
  
Joan went in one direction and Adam and Luke in the other. A few minutes later in Adam's car, Luke broke the silence.  
  
"Adam, you ever stolen anything?"   
  
"No. Well, yeah,but just junk for my art, why?"   
  
"Because I sort of stole something."  
  
"You, Luke? Luke Girardi? Crazy world, yo," Adam said. "What'd you take, a scientific calculator?"  
  
"No. A notebook. Uh.. a black one," Luke said.  
  
"A black notebook, wow," Adam said, scarastically, turning onto the Girardi's street. "Hey, wait a second."  
  
"What?"   
  
Adam laughed a little. "You're one freaky little dude. It was Grace's wasn't it?"   
  
"Uh.." Luke said.   
  
A/N: A tired chapter, yes. Sorry. And thanks Ashley for suggesting the spacing, it does make it easier to read. 


	5. In Which Adam and Joan Talk

5. In Which Adam and Joan Talk  
  
Joan parked her car in the back lot of the newspaper office and sat there for a second, thinking about what her excuse for showing up would be. Once she came up with one, she walked into the office and made her way over to her desk. Kerrie was sitting at the one next to it, typing something up on her computer. She heard someone walking towards the desk and looked up.   
  
"Hey Joan. I though you only worked on mondays?" she said.  
  
"Oh I do. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out later, like come over for dinner?" Joan asked. Kerrie looked at her, suprised.   
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Um, sure, okay. Where do you live, and when should I show up?" Joan told her the information, and Kerrie agreed to show up.   
  
"See you at six then, bye," Joan said.   
  
"Bye," Kerrie called after her. Back out in the parking lot, Joan ran into Cute-Guy-God.   
  
"You really like this look, don't you?" she asked. He shrugged.  
  
"Inviting Kerrie over was a good start. But you two need to talk," God said.  
  
"Wow, very persistant. What's up?" Joan asked.   
  
"Joan."  
  
"Okay, okay, alright," Joan said, letting out a sigh. She climbed into her car and put it in drive, but leaned her head against the steering wheel. Giving a heavy sigh, she picked her head up and drove to her house. The main road was blocked up with traffic, so she turned and drove past the graveyard, where she saw the Rove's car parked. Adam was walking through the gate, heading back to the car when he saw Joan. He walked over to the car, and Joan stepped out.   
  
"Hey Jane."  
  
"Hey Adam."  
  
"I was just-" Joan nodded and noticed Adam looked like he was about to cry.   
  
"You okay?" she asked.   
  
"Jane, you know how I said that I talked to angels?" Joan nodded. "Do you think I'd be crazy if I said I talked to God, and God talked back?" The breath caught in Joan's throat.   
  
"God talks to you?" she asked, trying to remain calm.  
  
"I.. I was at mom's grave, and this guy came over to me, he.. he was like our age. He said that she missed me. He never accually said who, but, I think he was talking about mom," Adam said.   
  
"Adam, did he have brown hair and brown eyes? Wear a tan coat?" Joan asked. Adam nodded. "Yeah... How did you..?" Millions of things flew through Joan's head. Should she tell him? If she did, would he believe her? Would God be mad if she told him? She hoped not.. Having God mad at you would really suck...   
  
"Adam, ever since I moved here, he's been talking to me too," Joan said. Adam looked at her for a minute in silence, then smiled.  
  
"Your secert is safe with me Jane."  
  
"You believe me?" Joan asked. Adam nodded.  
  
"Of course I believe you, Joan," Adam said. Joan hugged him.  
  
"It feels so great to have finally told someone," Joan said. Adam kissed her forehead. "You can tell me anything Jane."  
  
Authors Note: Just slap a sticker on me and call me cheesy fluff girl. And before I go, thanks for reviewing everyone! 


	6. The Fire

6. The Fire  
  
The doorbell to the Girardi house rang. "Luke? Can you get that?" Helen asked her son.   
  
"Sure mom," Luke responded from the living room. He opened a door and saw a red haired girl standing in the doorway.   
  
"Hey, does Joan Girardi live here?" she asked.   
  
"Uh, yeah. She's not here right-" Luke started as two cars pulled up in the driveway. Joan got out of one, and Grace got out of the other. They yelled at each other for a second, then both turned at looked at Luke, "She's in the driveway. I have to run.." Luke said. He left the girl standing in the doorway and headed up to his room, pulling out the notebook. "Luke, you have lost your mind," he said to himself. He opened the book just as the door flew open. He was only able to read one line before Joan walked in, took it, hit Luke upside the head and asked what posessed him to do something that dumb.  
  
"Well, you know Grace, she's hard to read," Luke pointed out. Joan tilted her head to the side.  
  
"Well, yeah, but.." Joan started. She was interrupted by Helen coming into Luke's room.   
  
"Joan, you're friends are still downstairs, Luke, Glynis is on the phone for you," Helen told her kids. Joan headed back downstairs. Grace and Kerrie were standing in the doorway. "Here Grace," Joan said, handing Grace her notebook.   
  
"Uh.. thanks. Dad's dragging me to some thing at our synagogue tonight, but tell your brother that he will not live to see the age of sixteen if he pulls another stunt like that," Grace said, walking away.   
  
"Sorry about that Kerrie. Come in," Joan said, stepping aside. Kerrie walked into the house.   
  
"Thanks for inviting me over," she said.   
  
"Hey, no problem," Joan said. "Dinner's probably gonna be done in a half hour, so you wanna go up to my room and talk?" Kerrie nodded.  
  
"Okay." The girls walked up the stairs and headed for Joan's room.  
  
"No. No. No I'm- Hey! That is not- Who told you she-? Friedman? You listened to Friedman?! Are you- No. No I don't! No! Um.. hello? Hello?" Luke said into the phone.When he realized he had been hung up on, he hit the off button and slammed his head into the wall. Pulling back, he slammed his head into the wall again. He repeated this for a minute or so, then pulled back, rubbed his head, and walked downstairs muttering "Asprin.. Need asprin.." Once he was downstairs, Joan started cracking up.   
  
"What's wrong with him?" Kerrie asked as Joan opened the door to her room.   
  
"Lately, he's been having girl troubles. My whole family's crazy," Joan said. She and Kerrie walked into Joan's room.   
  
"I get it. I've got two sisters. The second Haylie graduated she split town, haven't seen her in five years, and my little sister Kait's one of those weird people that hang out in graveyards, listens to death metal, and threatens to burn down the house and 'kill us all'."  
  
"Eech. And I thought my home life was bad.." Joan said. Kerrie shrugged.  
  
"It's been like that for at least 16 years, I'm use to it," Kerrie said.   
  
"Wanna watch TV or something?" Joan asked, changing the topic.   
  
"Sure," Kerrie said. The girls both sat on Joan's bed and she picked up the remote. She was crusing through channels when Kerrie told her to stop.  
  
"I love this movie!" Kerrie exclamed.   
  
"What is it?" Joan asked.  
  
"Ginger Snaps. It about a girl that's bitten by a lycanthrope and turns into one," Kerrie explaned.  
  
"Ooh, haven't seen a werewolf movie in a while," Joan said. Right at the scene where Bridgette locks Ginger in the bathroom, the screen went black and a newscaster came on. Behind him was a burning house.  
  
"We interrupt this program to inform you of a house fire, started at approximently 5:55 pm. While the cause of the fire is unknown, it has already spread over four houses. The Arcadia fire department responded immediently, and the fire is undercontrol." Someone came up on screen and whispered something to the newscaster. "This just in. We were just informed that the cause of the fire was a mixture of alchohal and kerosene, and was spread over the houses due to the strong winds. The three of the four houses were unoccupied at the time, however the house the fire started in was occupied, and the three occupants have been presumed dead." the camera zoomed in on the houses and Kerrie's eyes widened. "Oh my god!" she yelled, standing up.   
  
"What?" Joan asked.   
  
"That's-that's my house! Joan, I've got to go! I have to see if mom and dad and Kait are alright!" Kerrie said.   
  
"Did you drive over?" Joan asked, grabbing her coat.   
  
"No, I walked."   
  
"I'll drive you," Joan said, picking up her keys. The girls ran out of the room and down the stairs, bolting out of the house and jumping into the car.   
  
A few minutes later, they were at the fire. Will noticed his daughter had just pulled up at walked over to her.  
  
"Joan, why are you here?" he asked.  
  
"Dad, my friend lives here," Joan said. Kerrie looked freaked out. Will's pocket started talking. He pulled out his walkey-talky and walked away, talking into it. Kerrie stood there, staring at the house slowly burning, and the firemen putting it out. A dog ran into the yard, and Kerrie grabbed it by the collar.   
  
"Dolby, stay back," Kerrie said. The big golden retrever barked. Ten minutes later, the fire was out and the Corner's office arrived. Will walked over to one of the firemen and asked him something. Heading back, Kerrie stopped him. "Did you find my mom, dad and sister?" she asked. The Corner's walked by with body bags. Three body bags. Will looked at him, then back at Kerrie. "I'm sorry," Will said. His pocket started to talk again. "Excuse me," he said, walking away.   
  
"I'm so sorry," Joan said. Kerrie had a mixture of anger and depression on her face.   
  
"Kait started it. If you hadn't have invited me over she would have gotten her way. We'd all be dead," Kerrie said, begining to cry. Joan hugged her. For once, she caught on to why God asked her to do something before he explained it to her.   
  
Authors Note: ..Hey.. I had to put GS in there. Sorry. After I found out Kris Lemche was Cute-Guy-God I had to put it in there. Small world. Person from my favorite movie in my favorite TV show. Hm. 


	7. Arcadia High

7. Arcadia High  
  
The ride to school the next morning was dead silent. Joan pulled into the parking lot and parked the car. She and Luke sat there staring out the window.   
  
"We should go in," Luke said.   
  
"Yeah. We should," Joan said.   
  
"Okay, we should," Luke said.  
  
"Yeah," Joan told him.  
  
"This is getting us nowhere," Luke said.  
  
"Nowhere at all," Joan agreed.   
  
"On the count of three," Luke suggested. Joan nodded. "One."  
  
"Two."  
  
"Three," Luke said, opening the door and stepping out. Joan just sat there. Luke sighed and slammed the door, leaving his sister sitting in the car. Luke walked into the school and saw Grace sitting on the railing. He debated talking to her, when Adam showed up.   
  
"Hey Grace," Adam said.   
  
"Hey Rove."   
  
"You get you're book back?" Grace nodded.   
  
"Hey. Remember the party last weekend?" Grace asked. Adam nodded.  
  
"You and Joan do the couple thing all night?" she asked.  
  
"Since when do you care about my personal life?" Adam asked.  
  
"Well, since I have as much of one as a carrot, I might as well mock yours," Grace told him.  
  
"You wouldn't have that problem if you told Girardi you liked him," Adam said. Luke, still standing at the top of the stairs froze. She liked him? Grace Polk liked Luke Girardi?  
  
"Adam, we've known each other for thirteen years. In that time, how many people have I 'liked'?" she asked, using air quotes on the word liked.  
  
"Uh.. two?" he said.  
  
"I was young and stupid Rove, I'm not counting you," Grace said.   
  
"Oh. One then, dude," Adam said.  
  
"Exactally," Grace told him, jumping off the railing. "C'mon. We've got to get to class." The warning bell went off and Arcadia High students scattered.  
  
Joan wasn't in chem. Luke figured she was still sitting in the car, and he was going to go and find her after class. She'd already missed six classes. Chem wrapped up and the class stood up and left. Adam, Grace and Luke hung back.   
  
"Yo Luke, is Joan here today?" Adam asked.   
  
"Yeah. She's probably still in the car," Luke told him. The three walked out of the room.   
  
"What happened?" Adam asked. Luke shrugged.   
  
"She didn't say."   
  
"I'm gonna go find her. I'll see you dudes at lunch," Adam said, leaving. Grace and Luke made eye contact.   
  
"Did you read it?" Grace asked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"My notebook. Did you read it?"   
  
"Only one line.."  
  
"What line?"  
  
''The first one." Grace opened her notebook and read the first line. She closed it and thew the book in the trash can outside the cafeteria. A place where no one would ever find it. She took a deep breath and headed outside.   
  
"Grace, wait," Luke said, following her.  
  
There was a knock on the window. "Jane?" Adam asked. He walked around to the other side of the car and opened the door. "Jane?" he asked again, climbing in. Joan looked at him.   
  
"Hey Adam."  
  
"Jane, what's wrong?"   
  
"I saved someone's life last night."  
  
"Yo, really?" Joan nodded.  
  
"I've done it before. With the Crystle Ball. That's why I went with Ramsey."   
  
"Oh. So, what's the problem?" Adam asked.  
  
"Have you ever had a really horriable dream?"  
  
"Jane, my mother killed herself when I was thirteen. I've had millions," Adam told her.  
  
"Right. Sorry. But.. Have you ever had a crazy apocolyptic see everyone you care about die dream?" Joan asked, meeting Adam's eyes.  
  
"That's why you've been sitting here all day? Because of a dream? Jane, the cool things about dreams are that they aren't real," Adam told her.   
  
"But it seemed real. Adam, I talk to God. Needless to say, I've seen some pretty weird stuff. But the dream was so real and I can't shake it. What if it was like a sign?"  
  
"It wasn't a sign Joan. It was you being paranoied," a guy with long blond hair said. Joan rolled down the car window.  
  
'I'm not paranoied," Joan said.  
  
"Joan." Joan turned to Adam and pointed out the window with her thumb. "That's God," she told him.   
  
"Dude.." Adam said.   
  
"Hello Adam," God said.   
  
"So, you're okay that he knows?" God nodded.   
  
"Now Joan. I want you to get out of the car and go to class. You saw a fire that effected the life of Kerrie last night, causing you to become paranoied," God told her, walking away.  
  
"That was weird yo," Adam said. Joan laughed a little.   
  
"You get use to it," Joan told him. She started to open the door, when Adam protested.  
  
"Don't," he said, getting out of the car, walking around to her side and opening the door. She smiled.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Part of me always wanted to do that for some reason," Adam told her. Joan took Adam's hand, and they walked off to lunch. 


	8. Uncomfortable Silence

8. Uncomfortable Silence  
  
Underneath a tree on the Arcadia High school grounds, there was an uncomfortable silence. The rest of seventh period lunch was talking and laughing. The silence was soon broken by Adam and Joan, walking over holding hands and being all weird and mushy. "Hey," Joan said, sitting next to her brother. Adam sat next to her.  
  
"She finally leaves the car," Luke joked.   
  
"Don't make me hurt you," Joan said. She stole some of her brother's grapes. "So, what have you two been up to?" Joan asked. Grace and Luke looked at each other, then back down at their food.  
  
"Silence. Never good," Joan told Adam.   
  
"Unchallenged."  
  
"I've got somewhere I've got to be," Grace said, standing up.  
  
"Where?" Joan asked.  
  
"I'm not sure yet. I'll find a place, and go there," Grace told her, walking away.   
  
That afternoon, Luke stopped by Grace's house to not only work on the chemestry project, but to talk. He rang the door bell and Grace's father answered. He told Luke she was in the den. He walked into the den and saw Grace laying on the floor in a huge black hoodie, watching some movie with a lot of blood, screaming and fire.   
  
"Hey," Luke said. Another scream on the TV. Grace sat up and looked at Luke, sighed, and layed back down.  
  
"You look like Adam," Luke pointed out.  
  
"Thanks," she muttered.   
  
"So.. What are you watching?" he asked.  
  
"Carrie. Social outcast kills all," Grace said. Luke sat down on the floor next to Grace and picked up a CD laying on the floor.   
  
"Huckapoo? Grace Polk listens to Huckapoo?" he asked, amazed. She took the CD and threw it at the door in the back of the den.  
  
"Tell anyone and I will personally kill you."   
  
"You're secert's safe with me. But the reason I came over here is because of our chem project? It's due next week," Luke pointed out. Grace grabbed the remote and hit pause. She stood up and walked to the back of the den and opened the door, kicking the CD in the room. When she came back out, she was holding her chem book and a binder. She dropped them down on the floor.  
  
"Okay. What do we have to do?" she asked, taking the hood off.   
  
"500 words on catalysts." Grace raised an eyebrow.  
  
"You cannot be serious. I did that in eighth grade," Grace said.   
  
"Then we should be done fast."  
  
Fifteen minutes later, they were done.   
  
"Great, we're done. We can hand it in tomorrow and get exra credit," Luke said.   
  
"Yeah sure," Grace responded, turning her movie back on. Silence.   
  
"I heard you and Adam talking this morning," Luke blurted out. Grace gave him a look that brought a new meaning to the term 'if looks could kill'.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"You easedroped on the conversation Rove and I were having?"  
  
"I was walking down the stairs to get to class and I overheard."  
  
"How much?"  
  
"Um.. All of it.."  
  
"All of it huh? Figures." More silence.   
  
"Okay, you know what?" Grace asked.  
  
"Um.. What?" Luke asked. Grace grabbed Luke by the shirt collar and pulled him to her kissing him. They stayed sitting on the floor making out for an hour or so, only breaking apart when oxygen had become an issue. 


	9. I Guess It Takes Guts

9. I Guess It Takes Guts  
  
Authors Note: Yeah, I didn't go into detail back there cuz I'm not good at writing that kind of stuff. Use your imationation, and thanks for all the reviews! And be set for some serious weird G/L stuff in this chapter.  
  
That night, Luke and Joan ment up in the driveway. They had the same expression, spacy and thrilled.  
  
"Hey, where've you been all day?" Joan asked her brother.  
  
"Grace's, you?"  
  
"Adam's." As they reached the door, Kevin pulled up. He rolled down the driveway as Helen opened the door from the inside.   
  
"Will, come here," she called into the house. Will walked into the living room and looked out the door.  
  
"Wow. All three of our kids. All at the same time. And they all have the same expression." Helen nodded.  
  
"Let me guess. Adam's house, Grace's house and somewhere with Rebecca?" she asked, stepping aside. The Girardi kids entered their house and all headed for their rooms as fast as they could.   
  
Upstairs, Joan walked into Luke's room holding a binder. He was sitting at his desk, typing something on his computer. Joan dropped the binder in his lap.   
  
"Does that make any sence?" she asked. Luke opened the binder and read what was in there. When he was done, he handed it back to him sister.   
  
"Yeah," Luke told her, turning back to his computer. Joan sat down on his bed.  
  
"So how was Grace's?" Since his back was to her, Joan couldn't see Luke give into the grin that he had been holding in since he left.   
  
"It was... Fine," he said, not wanting to sound overly happy.  
  
"Sure it was. What happened?" Joan asked her brother, moving towards the end of his bed.  
  
"If I tell you, you'll regret asking," Luke said, still facing the computer.  
  
"Come on! I'll tell you what happened at Adam's.." Joan said. Luke rolled his eyes.  
  
"You two made out for an hour or so, wrote the report, and went back to making out." Joan blinked.  
  
"Well, yeah.. Come on!!" Joan begged.   
  
"Why do you care?"  
  
"Because you're my little brother, and Grace is, like, my best friend."  
  
"Kevin! Joan! Luke! Dinner!" Helen yelled upstairs. Luke hit the save button on his computer and left his room, with Joan trailing behind him.  
  
The next day, thursday, Joan drove into the school parking lot and put the car in park.   
  
"So, you getting out of the car today?" Luke asked. Joan playfully hit his arm. They got out of the car and headed into Arcadia High  
  
Just as the late bell rang, Adam and Grace ran into AP Chem and took their seats on either side of Joan. For the first time all year, the class room was abnormally silent in the back. The silence was soon ended by Joan and Adam launching into a conversation. Grace looked down at the table and concidered adding to the carving when Luke turned around. She looked up at him.   
  
"Can I help you?"  
  
"We.. We need to talk.. I think.."  
  
"About?"  
  
"You know, yesterday.." Grace sat up and looked Luke in the eyes.  
  
"Okay, shoot," she told him.   
  
"What did it mean?" Grace shrugged. Luke was about to say something else, when Ms. Lischak walked past their tables.   
  
"Mr. Girardi, Ms. Polk, could you two continue your conversation after class? The same goes for you Miss Girardi and Mr. Rove."  
  
The back of the room was silent again. 80 minutes later, the bell rang. Most people ran out of the room to the lunch room and Grace attempted to be one of them, but Luke grabbed her arm. She spun around.  
  
"You know if you keep this up I could get a restraning order," Grace pointed out. Luke let go of her, expecting her to leave, but she stayed put. The two looked at each other for a minute, when Grace spoke again.  
  
"Okay, look Girardi. I don't like people. I don't kiss people, and I definantly don't date people, alright?"  
  
"Yes. Except for a few things. You said you liked me, and we sort of made out yesterday in your den."  
  
"I know, I was there too. Okay, look Luke, I like you, alright? But I ucannot/u do this," Grace said. She looked at Luke for a moment, then turned around and walked out of the room. He followed her down to the lunch room. Grace sped through the lunch line, walked over to the vending macheans, got a bottle of water, and looked around for Adam and Joan. She found them tounge wrestling in the corner. Shuddering, she concidered eating alone outside, but it looked like it was going to rain. She glanced around, and not finding any open tables, she opened the door and walked outside. Thinking she was safe, she took a seat away from the crowd on the side of the building and sat her tray down. She was in the process of opening her water bottle when the side door opened and Luke stepped outside.   
  
"Oh my god, do I need to spell it out for you?! Re-stran-ing or-der," Grace said, pronouncing each part of the words. Luke sat next to her.   
  
"Just answer me one question and I'll leave you alone."  
  
"Fine," Grace said, sighing.  
  
"What are you so afraid of?" Grace blinked.   
  
"Who says I'm afraid of anything?"  
  
"You're afraid of something, otherwise you wouldn't be running away." Grace looked at him.   
  
"Fine. You win. If you repeat what I'm about to say, I'll kill you. And that is a promise, not a threat." Luke nodded.  
  
"Aside from Rove back in, like, fourth grade, I have never liked anyone before you. I've seen what happens to teenage girls when they start dating. I mean, take your sister for example. And I do not want to be one of those girls that spend every waking minute like that. Whenever Rove's around, he and Joan are making out, and when he's not, Joan's moping around about missing him. But you're her brother, you know that. I am not like that. I never have been, and I never will be, so I do unot/u date. Anyone. Ever."   
  
"Wow. Okay. Thank you." Luke said. And staying true to his deal with her, he stood up and started to leave, when Grace stood up too. After stairing at each other for a few minutes, when Grace reached out and put her arm around his waist. Pulling him to her, she kissed him. The rain started pourning down and Arcadia High students scattered, running into the lunch room. Pulling away, Grace let out a deep sigh.  
  
"I don't believe I'm about to go against everything I just said.." Luke looked confused for a second, then caught on.  
  
"Seriousally?" Grace nodded.   
  
"Hey, I don't know about you, but I'm going inside," Grace said, looking up at the pouring rain, and she and Luke joined the mob of students heading inside. 


	10. The Untitled Chapter

10. The Untitled Chapter  
  
Authors Note: Hey guys, check this out! Joan-n=joa Joa=Joan of Arcadia. That's kinda cool when you think about it long enough.. Or maybe I'm just a freak. Anyway.. I'm having weird visuals of Joan and Adam double dating with Luke and Grace, so if that comes up anywhere in the story..  
  
Joan and Adam broke their kiss, needing air. Not wanting to fully break contact, they leaned their foreheads against each other.   
  
"Hey Jane?" Adam asked.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"We've only been going out for two weeks, right?"   
  
"Yeah.."  
  
"Would you call me crazy if I told you something, yo?"  
  
"That depends.." Joan said, having no idea what so ever where this was going.  
  
"Well.. I've been told I should wait to tell you this, but.. I love you Joan," Adam said. Joan pulled away from him, looking him in the eyes. She smiled.  
  
"I love you too Adam," she told him. The two were kissing again when a familliar voice from above spoke.  
  
"Aww.."   
  
Joan and Adam broke their kiss and looked up, seeing a soaking wet Grace, and a soaking wet Luke.  
  
"Very funny," Joan said. Then she noticed something. A smile spread over her face.  
  
"Are you two.. holding hands?" Joan asked, when the answer was obvious. Grace and Luke looked down and quickly let go of each others hand, both turning very red.   
  
"Dude.." Adam said.   
  
"Dude yourself," Grace said, taking the empty seat next to Joan. Luke took the empty seat inbetween Adam and Grace. After ten minutes of talking, the bell went off.   
  
That afternoon, Joan, Adam and Grace walked out of the school together, talking about the chemestry homework.  
  
"So, I'll see you guys at three?" Joan asked, setting the time that Adam and Grace would be going to the Girardi's house to work on their chem homework.  
  
"Deal," Grace said.  
  
"See you there," Adam told Joan. Grace and Adam turned right and headed for their houses, and Joan turned right, walking towards the parking lot. When Joan reached the parking lot, Luke was sitting on the trunk of the car, waiting for Joan. She unlocked the doors, and she and Luke climbed in.   
  
"So.. You and Grace eh?" Joan asked, driving out of the parking lot.   
  
"Yeah, I guess so," Luke said. A pause.  
  
"You and Adam seemed to have a productive lunch yourselves," Luke said. Joan smiled.  
  
"He told me he loves me."  
  
"I heard." Joan pulled into the driveway of the Girardi household and she and Luke got out of the car and walked into their house. Joan went into the kitchen and threw her backpack on the table.  
  
"Mom? Grace and Adam are coming over to work on homework okay?" Joan asked her mother. Helen was looking at something in the freezer.   
  
"Sure. You sound unusually happy Joan," Helen said.  
  
"That's because Adam and Joan love each other," Luke said, entering the kitchen. Joan chucked her planner at him.  
  
"Hey!"   
  
"Hey nothing Mr. I-was-holding-hands-with-Grace-Polk-durning-lunch!" Joan said. Luke threw Joan's planner at her. Helen stoop up and closed the freezer. She looked at her kids, and pointed at Luke.  
  
"You and Grace are a couple?" she asked. Joan took this as a chance to escape. No such luck. "Stay put Joan, you're next."  
  
"Um.. Yes.." Luke told his mother, not sounding to sure. Helen smiled.  
  
"Well we all knew it would happen." She turned to Joan.  
  
"You and Adam said that you loved each other?" Joan nodded.  
  
"We all knew that was coming too. If have the most obvious kids in the world. So, want me to order a pizza tonight?"   
  
"Um.. Alright.." Joan and Luke said in unison. Helen nodded and walked upstairs. Joan unpacked her backpack, then threw it in the living room.   
  
"Wanna sit in with us?" Joan asked.  
  
"You just want my answers," Luke said.   
  
"Of course," Joan told him as the doorbell rang. She walked into the living room and answered the door.  
  
"Two out of three, yo?" Adam asked Grace. Neither noticed the door was opened.  
  
"Adam, I've been beating you at thumb wrestling since we were three. You aren't gonna win," Grace said. Joan coughed.  
  
"Oh, hey Jane."  
  
"Hey Adam, hey Grace," Joan said, stepping aside. Adam and Grace entered her house, and the three went into the kitchen. Luke was still in there, sitting at the table reading.   
  
"You make your decision?" Joan asked. Luke looked up from his book.  
  
"Joan, you aren't cheating off of me. Besides, watching you try and do the work is entertaining." Joan grabbed the first thing she could find, which happened to be her planner, and threw it at her brother, again.  
  
"Can you stop doing that?!" Luke asked as Joan, Adam and Grace sat down. Joan opened up her book and put it infront of Adam who was in the middle of the three, so they could all see it. They started going over the homework, trying to figure out the answers. Grace looked at the book to copy something down when she noticed Adam and Joan stealing looks at each other. She shook her head.   
  
"I think you two are studying the wrong kind of chemestry," Grace said under her breath. Luke was the only one who heard her. He laughed a little. Grace looked up at Luke and back down at her paper. This continued for three minutes, alternating who was looking at whom, when Joan spoke up.  
  
"Who's studying the wrong type of chemestry now?" she said under her breath. Grace glared at Joan.  
  
Authors Note: Just to let you know, the next few chapters are gonna be mostly Adam and Joan.  
  
"Funny," she said. 


	11. The Happy Couple

11. The Happy Couple  
  
Authors Note: Dude, sorry about that authors note then the last line. I dunno why it uploaded like that.  
  
Monday afternoon, Joan fell down into her seat at the newspaper. She turned to Kerrie's desk.  
  
"Hey," she said. Kerrie nodded at Joan. The two worked in silence for a half hour when Adam showed up.  
  
"Hey Jane," he said, standing next to her desk. Joan smiled up at him, and Kerrie put down her pen, turning to look at Adam.  
  
"What's up?" Joan asked. Adam shrugged.  
  
"Nothing to do. So I came to visit you, yo."  
  
"I've still got a half hour left here, but you wanna do something later?"   
  
"Unchallenged." Adam leaded down and kissed the top of Joan's head, then left. Kerrie watched him leave.  
  
"Who's that?" she asked Joan.   
  
"Adam. My boyfriend," Joan told Kerrie. Kerrie picked up her pen again.  
  
"I saw him at the graveyard yesterday," Kerrie said. Joan nodded. There was silence for a bit, when Kerrie spoke up.  
  
"He's hot." Joan didn't know how to respond to the comment, so she kept silent. Adam returned at four. Joan was putting a notebook in her bag when she saw him.  
  
"Yo," she joked. "Wanna go for pizza?"   
  
"Okay," Adam responded, and he and Joan walked out of the newspaper office.  
  
"Did you drive over?" Joan asked. Adam nodded.  
  
"So did I," Joan said.   
  
"See you there, then," Adam said, kissing Joan. They broke apart and went to their own cars, drove to Pizza Hut, and were reunited in the parking lot. Joan took Adam's hand and they walked into Pizza Hut.   
  
While they were waiting for their soda's, Joan spotted the oh so familliar Cute Guy God sitting on one of the stools. He turned on the stool and waved to Adam and Joan.   
  
"Oh for the love of-" Joan started, realizing if she finished that sentence, it would end in yet another lame pun.  
  
"I'll be right back," Joan told Adam. He looked over to where God was sitting and nodded. Joan got up and walked over to him.  
  
"Alright, you're here, if I didn't know any better I'd think it was friday. What's my next 'mission'?"  
  
"Take Adam horse-back riding." Joan raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"You learned how to horse-back ride at age ten, you still remember. Go and teach Adam. Tomorrow. After school," God said.  
  
"Okay, okay," Joan told him, walking back over to Adam.  
  
"So, Adam, wanna go horse-back riding tomorrow?"   
  
"Do I have a choice?"  
  
"If you say no you'll be ignoring God's request," Joan said.  
  
"Tomorrow after school huh?" Adam asked. Joan nodded.  
  
The next day, Adam, Joan and Grace walked down the halls, heading for the exit.   
  
"Horse-back riding huh?" Grace asked. "Just a warning, Rove's the most un-coordinated person in the universe."  
  
"Dude," Adam said.  
  
"I told you not to call me dude," Grace said as Luke ran up to them.  
  
"Hey," he said, receving a chorus of 'hi's' from the three.  
  
"So, Grace, wanna do something after school?" Luke asked. She shrugged. The four walked outside and stopped on the steps.   
  
"Luke, tell mom I'll be home around five, okay?" Joan asked.  
  
"Sure," Luke said as Joan and Adam headed for Joan's car.   
  
Once Joan and Adam reached the barn, and went through the long (oh so very long) process of getting their horses tacked up, they both mounted up.  
  
"I did mention I've never done this before?" Adam asked.  
  
"It's really easy. Just say the word walk," Joan told him.   
  
"Uh.. walk?" he said, sounding unsure. The horse started moving.  
  
"So we've got to talk to the horses?" Joan nodded.  
  
"A lot. Come on," Joan said, heading out of the barn for the trail. It was just wide enough for the two to ride side-by-side.   
  
"Not so bad, huh?" Joan asked. No answer.   
  
"Wanna take it up a gage?" Joan asked.  
  
"Uh... Sure.." Adam said. Joan laughed. Hearing his sound so nervous was kind of cute.   
  
"Okay, just turn the heels of your shoes in and squeeze a little bit. You'll go into a trot, okay?" Adam tried it, and the horse sped up a bit. Joan did the same.   
  
"I guess it's not that horriable," Adam admited.   
  
"It gets better when you go faster," Joan told him. She told Adam how to get his horse into a canter, and he did. Joan did too, and they began fooling around and pretending to race. Caught up in the moment, Joan ran ahead of him. She came up on a small creek and came to a stop.   
  
"See Adam, it's wicked fun," Joan said, laughing. No answer. She turned around.  
  
"Adam?" she asked. She jumped off the horse and tied his bridle to a tree branch.  
  
"Adam?!" she yelled, heading back the way she came. She broke into a run and was nearly ran down by Adam's horse, without Adam on it.   
  
"Oh my God." Joan kept running until she saw a dark figure laying on the ground.  
  
"Adam?" she whispered, running over to him and kneeling down. "Adam??" she asked again. No responce. He wasn't concious. 


	12. Panic

Authors note: Yo, I wasn't going to post this for a week, but I decided to be nice and post it today. Thanks for all the reviews!  
  
And now without further ado, I present to you;  
  
12. Panic  
  
Joan pulled out her cell phone and punched in 911.  
  
"911 emergency?"  
  
"My boyfriend, he fell off his horse, he's unconcious. I need an ambulance! We're on the south trail in Highland Park," Joan said, trying to stay calm. The person on the other end told her an ambulance was on its way. Joan hung up the cell phone and looked back down at Adam, crying.  
  
A few minutes later, Adam was being place on a stretcher. Joan rode in the ambulance with him, explaning to the paramedics what happened. Once at the hospital, Joan wasn't allowd in the room while the doctors were working. She pulled out a quarter, cell phones not being allowd in hospitals and all, and place it in the pay phone.   
  
At Grace's house, the phone began to ring. She pulled herself away from Luke for a second and looked through her opened bedroom door at the phone in the den.  
  
"Way too far away," she said under her breath, turning back to Luke. She wrapped her arms around his bare shoulders, his shirt had somehow managed to be removed in the makeout session and was now on Grace's floor, and the two went back to some serious making out. The answering machean picked up.  
  
"Hello, you have reached David and Grace. We can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message."  
  
"Grace? Pick up the phone. Grace?! Come on!! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! Take your tounge out of my brother's mouth and pick up the phone. Please," Joan said. Grace heard the panic in Joan's voice on the word please, and she automatically knew. She broke the kiss with Luke and ran into the den, picking up the phone.  
  
"Joan?" she asked. Luke walked into the den and listened to Grace's end of the conversation.  
  
"Oh my God. Did they tell you anything? How long-? Oh my God. Of course. I'll be right there," Grace said. Hanging up her phone. She ran back into her room and grabbed her leather jacket.  
  
"What's going on?" Luke asked. Grace bent down and picked up Luke's shirt, tossing it to him.  
  
"Put your shirt on. I've got to go to the Rove's," Grace told him. She then grabbed her keys and closed her door.   
  
"Why?" Luke asked, buttoning up his shirt.   
  
"I'll tell you in the car," Grace said, running out of the den. Luke followed her out of the house and into the car.  
  
"Grace, what's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"Your sister was on the phone. She was calling.. She was calling from the hospital," Grace told him, putting the car in drive and heading for the Rove's.   
  
"Is she okay?!" Luke asked.  
  
"Yeah. It's Adam.. He's unconcious," Grace said, pulling into the Rove's driveway. She jumped out of the car and ran up to the front door. It was locked. She pulled her keys out of her pocket, put one in the door, unlocked it and walked into the house. Luke watched this from the car. Grace and Mr. Rove appeared a moment later. Mr. Rove jumped into his car, and Grace back into hers.  
  
"We're going to the hospital," Grace said.  
  
As the three entered the hospital, Luke felt Grace grab his hand. Mr. Rove walked up to the desk and started yelling receptionist. Grace and Luke walked into the waiting room and sunk down into the chairs.   
  
"I don't believe I'm in this hospital again," Grace said, under her breath.  
  
"What?" Luke asked.  
  
"Three years ago. I was here with Adam.. The day his mother died," Grace said. Luke suddenly understood why she was so freaked out. She and Adam were best friends, they'd known each other for thirteen years, and Adam was unconcious. The last time she was in a hospital, someone died. It all made sence.   
  
"He's in room 374," Mr. Rove told the teens, then followed a doctor down the hall. Grace and Luke stood up and headed for the elevator, going up to the third floor. The elevator doors opened, and they walked down the hall, where they found the waiting room for rooms 370-379. Joan was pacing back and fourth when she noticed them. She ran over and hugged her brother, then turned to Grace and hugged her. Grace looked very uncomfortable, but hugged Joan back for a second, then stepped back and crossed her arms.  
  
"Um.. How.. How is he?" Grace asked.  
  
"They just moved him out of ICU. He's.. He's in a coma.." Joan said, barly whispering. Grace nodded a little.   
  
"Mr. Rove's in there now with a doctor," Joan explained.  
  
"Joan?" a doctor called out into the waiting room. She spun around.  
  
"You!" she yelled. "Why did you do this?!" Joan ran over to the doctor-God. Grace and Luke watched Joan and God go into an empty room, Joan still screaming at him and crying.   
  
"O-kay.." Luke said under his breath.  
  
In the empty hospital room, Joan had taken a seat on the bed. She looked up at at God.   
  
"Why did you do this? What did he do?"  
  
"Joan, you know I can't tell you that. But he'll be alright, for the most part. Give him time Joan, everything happens for a reason." God left, and Joan sat on the bed, pulling herself together, then walked out of the room and saw the strangest sight in the waiting room. Not only was Grace willingly hugging Luke, but she appeared to be crying.  
  
"Tell anyone you saw me cry and I'll hurt you," Grace told Luke.  
  
"Don't worry." They broke apart and walked over to a row of chairs, collapsing in them again. Joan joined them. The three sat in silence for a while, when Mr. Rove came out.  
  
"He's waking up. The doctors said that we should all just go home and check back tomorrow." 


	13. Uncertanity

13. Uncertainty  
  
In chemestry the next day, the table behind Luke, Friedman and Glynis was empty. Joan had obviousally stayed home, as had Grace. And Adam was still in the hospital. The second the bell rang, Luke stood up and made a B-line of the office. Friedman followed him, wanting to find out what was going on.  
  
"Hey, why aren't you going to lunch?" he asked Luke. Luke ignored him and walked into the office. His mother was on the phone. She saw Luke come in.  
  
"He just came in. Alright. I'll tell him," Helen said.  
  
"Anything?" Luke asked. Helen nodded.  
  
"That was Joan and Grace. He's awake. Carl's with him right now, they aren't sure of his condition. Joan wanted you to get down there," Helen told her son.  
  
"Who's awake, what's going on?" Friedman asked. Luke turned around.  
  
"Go away." he turned back to his mother.  
  
"I've got to wait until school's over, don't I?"   
  
"You can't drive. I'll drop you off after school."   
  
The second the final bell rang, Luke jumped up from his honors history seat and ran into the office. He and Helen left the school, and drove to the hospital, dropping off Luke. He went up to the third floor and saw Grace sitting in the same chair she was in yesterday. She looked up and saw Luke walking over to her.  
  
"Hey."  
  
"Hey."  
  
"Your sister's in there, so's Mr. Rove."  
  
"Are you going in?" Grace gave her signature shrug. Luke pulled her up.   
  
"Come on Grace, you're going in. They guy's your best friend," Luke told her. The walked into the room, and saw Joan sitting in a chair next to his bed and Mr. Rove pacing. Adam began to open his eyes.  
  
"He's waking up," Joan reported. Mr. Rove stopped pacing and walked over to his son's bedside. Grace and Luke remained in the doorway.   
  
"Ugh.." Adam said. To him, the world was spinning. It finally came into focus. There were white walls. A big white room. With four people in it. Who all looked really familliar. Who were they? 'Come on Adam, think. Who are they?' Adam thought. His head was throbbing. A pretty brown haired girl sitting by his bed spoke.  
  
"Adam?" she asked. Her voice sounded so familiiar. Who was she? The door opened and a doctor entered. It was obvious he was a doctor. He walked over to Adam.  
  
"Hello Adam," he said.   
  
"Hi," Adam said, his voice sounding raspy.   
  
"I'm doctor Henson. Do you know where you are? Do you remember what happened?" the doctor asked.  
  
"No," Adam answered.   
  
"Do you regonize anyone?" Doctor Henson asked.   
  
"Sort of.." Adam responded in a low voice. Dr. Henson turned to Mr. Rove.  
  
"Amnesia," he said.   
  
"Do you know when his memory will return?" Mr. Rove asked.  
  
"Gradually over time. His memory of the past few months may not return however."  
  
"Dad?" Adam asked the man the doctor was talking to.  
  
"See? Nothing to worry about. I'll check back in an hour. Take things slow."  
  
"Yeah Adam," Mr. Rove said. Adam sat up ad looked around the room. Three more people. The pretty brown haired girl, a blond girl in a leather jacket, and a nerdy looking guy. All of them looked so familliar. So why couldn't he remember them?  
  
"I'm going to go call work and tell them I wont be there tonight," Mr. Rove said. He looked down at Adam. "I'll be right back." Mr. Rove left the room. Grace said something to Luke, who nodded.  
  
"We're gonna give you guys some time," Grace said as she and Luke left the room. They both stood in the waiting room for awhile, when Grace spoke up.  
  
"I'll be right back," she said, heading down the hall to the empty room that Joan and God had been in the day before.  
  
Back in Adam's room, Joan was trying to trigger his memory.  
  
"Hey Adam," she said. Adam looked at her.  
  
"Hi..." he said, traling off.  
  
"Joan. I'm Joan. But you always call me Jane," Joan said.   
  
"Can we stick with first names, and work on nicknames later?" Adam asked.  
  
"Sure," Joan said.  
  
"So, um, Joan... How do I know you?" Adam asked, sounding uncomfortable. Joan looked hurt for a moment, then remembered he had amnesia.  
  
"Well.. Well we ment in chemestry, and we became friends, and then two weeks ago we started going out," Joan explained.  
  
"So you're my girlfriend?" Adam asked. Joan nodded.  
  
Back outside in the waiting room, Luke was sitting in a chair, reading a magazine when he heard a weird noise come from the room where Grace had gone in. He put down the magazine and opened the door, seeing Grace sitting on the bed, her right hand in a fist, holding it up with her left hand and looking at it. Slowly she unclenched her fist, taking a deep breath. Luke walked over and sat next to her, looking at her hand.  
  
"What happened?" he asked. Her hand was a little dusty, and very cut up and bloody. Grace looked at him, and then pointed to the wall. Luke stood up and walked over to the wall, seeing a fist-sized hole in it.  
  
"You punched the wall?" Luke asked. Grace nodded.  
  
"You punched the wall?!" Luke asked again.  
  
"Yeah. I was just walking back and forth, and then it just... Happened...," Grace explained.  
  
"You take out your anger in weird ways," Luke joked.   
  
"I guess. I think we should probably get out of here before someone finds out I destroyed hospital property.."  
  
"Right," Luke said. 


	14. Weird Flashes

14. Weird Flashes  
  
Authors Note: Sorry this chapter's short, I just thought I should throw it inbetween two chapters.  
  
Red Skittlez: Heh, I was watching 'The Body' while writing that chapter. It was something I could see Grace doing, so I slipped it in there.  
  
Adam looked at the clock. 11:43pm. He glanced around the room. Big and empty. Two chairs, some flowers and an IV off in the corner. There were some pictures on the table that his father had brought him in attempt to triger his memory. There was also a portable CD player with a few CDs that Joan had brought over for him to listen to. Dr. Henson had said that Adam would have to stay in the hospital for at least a week. He wasn't sure he could handle that. He had already gotten his basic memories back, the most painful one was the one of his mother's funeral. He wasn't sure he could stay in the same place his mother had died in for a week. Or longer. Adam turned on the lamp by the bed and picked up the pictures, and the CD player. He put the first CD he could find in it and put on the headphones, hitting play. A song called Out of Place began to play as Adam looked through the pictures. Most of them were older, but there was a set of new ones. Most of them of himself and Joan, sitting outside of a huge building he assumed was Arcadia High School. Adam went through the pile and pulled out a picture of himself and Joan, sitting underneath a tree outside of the school. His eyes slowly began to close as a strange flash went through his mind. Big room filled with art pieces. A big metal contraption with a tag reading 'Asention by Adam Rove.' Then there was Joan. And a chair. And Joan smashing Asention. Adam felt a shap pain as he opened his eyes.  
  
"That was.. Weird..." he said to no one. Another flash went through his mind. He was sitting in a shed, throwing metal scraps into a trash can. The door opened. Grace entered and sat down on the table. Asked Adam what he was doing.  
  
"Getting rid of everything. It's not important."  
  
"Who are you and what did you do to Adam Rove?"  
  
"Grace, Jane smashed my best one. It's official. She isn't listining." Threw another piece of metal in the trash can. Went to grab more. Grace put her hand on his arm.  
  
"Hey, Adam, Joan had a moment of insanity. She probably had a reason. I'm not saying you should forgive her this soon, but at least think about it. And your wrong. She is listining."  
  
"Whatever Grace."   
  
"Just think about what I said. And talk to Joan." With that, she left. That flash faded into another one. Back in the same room as the first one. Feathers falling everywhere. Adam pulled Joan to him and kissed her. When they seperated;  
  
"Yo. You're covered in feathers Jane."   
  
"I noticed that. You are too." They both had smiles on their faces. Joan took Adam's hand.   
  
Adam opened his eyes. 12:01am. He had the strangest feeling he wouldn't be getting much sleep. 


	15. Not Every Ending is a Happy One

15. Not Every Ending is a Happy One  
  
Thursday. Joan and Grace sat in the back of AP chemestry, both fighting to stay awake. Joan looked at the white cloth bandage wrapped around Grace's hand.  
  
"What happened?" she asked with a yawn.  
  
"I got into a fight with a wall," Grace said, slamming her head down on the desk. She appeared to of lost the war with her tiredness. Joan let out a deep sigh. Ms. Lischak walked past where the girls were sitting. She looked at Joan.  
  
"Want me to wake her?"   
  
"Miss Girardi, I understand that you and Miss Polk have been having a difficult week, but please, stay awake. This is AP chemestry. It's dangerous to fall asleep in here. So yes, please wake her up." Joan did as Ms. Lischak said, and she and Grace sat through the remander of chem, trying to pay attention. When the lunch bell rang, the girls got up and ran out of the room, Luke following them. They made it to the front door when Luke caught up with them.  
  
"Where are you guys going?" he asked. They looked at him. "Right. Stupid question."  
  
"Tell mom that I'm cutting the rest of class and I'll hurt you," Joan said.   
  
"Why do people always threaten me?" Luke asked. Joan narrowed her eyes and glared at Luke.  
  
"Alright, I wont say anything."  
  
Joan and Grace stepped out of the elevator and into the waiting room they had come to know so well.   
  
"You want to go in first, don't you?" Grace asked.  
  
"Do you mind?"  
  
"Nah. I get it." Joan walked into Adam's room. He was sitting up, reading.  
  
"Hey Adam," Joan said. Adam closed the book and looked at her.  
  
"Hey Joan. I'm glad you're here. There's something I wanted to tell you," Adam said. Joan took a seat in the chair next to his bed.  
  
"Really? What?" she asked.  
  
"Last night, I started to remember stuff. Part of the art show, and part of the science fair, and it all made me think." Joan looked nervous. She was scared about where he was going with this.  
  
"I don't... I don't think we should see each other anymore," Adam said.   
  
"What? Why?" Joan asked.  
  
"Joan, I can't remember how I feel about you, and I can't get the pictures of everything bad that happened between us out of my head. It's over powering the good," Adam said. Joan nodded and stood up. She ran out of Adam's room and past Grace in the waiting room, then ran down the stairs and right out the doors of the hospital, crying. Grace watched her run by, then entered Adam's room.  
  
"What did you do to Girardi?" she asked, trying to keep her voice down.  
  
"Who?" Adam asked.  
  
"Joan. She just flew out of here crying!" Grace exclamed.  
  
"I broke up with her Grace."  
  
After the hospital, Joan didn't go straight home. Grace, however, had no way of knowing this. So she had driven to the Girardi's house and walked around to the back, where Luke and Glynis were sitting on the picknick table doing chemestry homework.  
  
"Okay, so the chememical formula is c6h12o6-" Luke started to say, looking down at the book.  
  
"Luke?" Glynis asked. He looked up from the book.  
  
"What?" Glynis leaned over and kissed Luke. Grace opened the back gate just in time to see Glynis and Luke kissing. Or Glynis kissing Luke as the case may be. She slammed the gate shut and headed back for her car. Hearing the gate slam, Glynis pulled back before Luke had a chance to realize what had happened. Luke looked over the fence from his spot on the picknick table and was just able to see Grace. He jumped down and looked at Glynis for a moment, then opened the gate and ran after Grace.  
  
"Grace!" he yelled. She stopped at the car door, letting Luke catch up with her.  
  
"Grace, did you just-" he was cut off.  
  
"As of this second, Girardi, our relationship is over," Grace yelled at him, opening the car door and climbing in.  
  
"Grace, wait," Luke said. Grace turned on the car and sped down the street, leaving Luke standing there.   
  
That night, Joan sat on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket, watching Casablanca. Luke walked into the living room, holding a bottle of flavored water.  
  
"Room for one more?" he asked. Joan moved over to let her brother sit down. He took a drink from the water bottle.   
  
On the other side of town, Grace layed on the floor in the den, listing to the messages on the answering machean. They were all for her father. Well, almost all...  
  
"Grace? Are you there? Can you answer the phone? *a pause* Okay, well.. When you get this, can you call me? You didn't give me a chance to explain." Grace stood up and slammed her hand down on the 'delete' button.   
  
Back in the hospital, Adam was laying on his bed, looking at the picture of himself and Joan sitting under the tree outside of school, wondering if he had made a terriable mistake. 


	16. Part Two

16. Part Two  
  
Thank God the next day was friday. Three of the four walked down the halls of Arcadia High. Adam had been told he would be able to return on monday, his memory was restoring itself faster than they'd thought. Must have something to do with the fact he had a photographic memory. Grace turned the corner, heading for her algebra class, and rammed into Joan.  
  
"Watch where you're going!" Grace yelled. Then she saw who she'd run into.  
  
"Oh, Joan, hey."  
  
"Um, hi Grace," Joan said, sounding very uncomfortable for someone talking to her best friend. "I'm not sure if I should be mad at you or not."  
  
"Why would you be mad at me?" Grace asked, knowing the answer.  
  
"You broke my brothers heart. He watched Casablanca with me last night, and then watched Titanic with me." Grace looked amsued.  
  
"Wow. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got an algebra class to be late to. I'll see you in chemestry," Grace said, pusing past Joan.   
  
As the fifth to sixth period bell rang, Joan left her English class and ment up with her brother who was coming out of the French room across the hall.  
  
"Hey," they said in unison.  
  
"You're going to chemestry and you sound upset. This has got to be a first," Joan said, trying to make a joke. Luke just looked at her.  
  
"Wow. Casablanca, Titanic and now no excitement over chemestry?"  
  
"So you're allowd to mope around the house over Adam dumping you, but I can't?"  
  
"That's different Luke. I lo-" Joan said, traling off. "Oh my God."   
  
"What?" Luke asked, he and his sister approching the chemestry room.  
  
"Do you.." Joan started.  
  
"What?" Luke asked again.  
  
"Luke, do you love Grace?" she said, spiling it all out as fast as she could. Luke didn't answer, he just walked into the chemestry room, leaving Joan standing there. When Joan entered the chemestry room, she saw the whole class, minus Grace and Adam, standing up at the front of the room. And there was more. There were new desks. The bell rang and Ms. Lischak began to explain.  
  
"As you can all see, we're got new desks. It's only temporary, but someone in fifth period accidenty burned a hole in one of them, and then his friends thought it would be fun to do the same, so while our three seated desks are being repared, the junior high has donated some of their extra lab desks. However, only two people can fit at them, so you will be re-assigned partners for the time being. It should only be for two days at the most." She began to tell the students who their new partners were when Grace walked in. "Every day for the past three weeks Miss Polk, that's a new record I believe." Grace just leaned against the wall. Glynis and Freidman were assigned together.   
  
"And beind them, Miss Girardi and Mr. Rove, when he comes back of course." And behind Joan and Adam, was of course;  
  
"Mr. Girardi and Miss Polk.." Ms. Lischak said, moving down the list. Grace and Luke looked at each other from across the room and Grace rolled her eyes. Ms. Lischak finished her list and told everyone to take a seat. Joan sat down at the desk, somewhat relieved that she would be sitting alone. Behind her, Grace and Luke sat down, attempting to sit as far away from each other as they could, but with the abnormally small desks, it didn't work out. Ms. Lischak explained the work of the day, and Grace came to the realization that there would be no way to avoid talking to Luke now that they were lab partners. When the class began working, Grace and Luke turned to each other.  
  
"Let's just get this over with," Grace muttered. She and Luke began measuring out chemicals and pouring them into beakers. Everything seemed okay until Luke spoke.  
  
"Are you ever going to let me explain?"  
  
"Luke, I'm not talking to you. Wrap your mind around it!" Grace said, then went back to pouring the HCl into a test tube.   
  
"Come on Grace. Why do you have to be so stubborn?"  
  
"It's a ressive gene from my mothers side."  
  
"Look, just hear me out." Grace poured the HCl into a beaker.   
  
"I'm using a chemical that could burn a hole through you. I don't reccomend pissing me off."  
  
"Grace, it's dilluted," Luke pointed out. Grace looked at the lable on the bottle.  
  
"Why does this happen to me every time?" Grace said under her breath. Luke poured some phenol red into a test tube.   
  
"We were working on homework," Luke said.  
  
"For what? Make Out 101?" Grace asked, pouring some carbon based substance into the test tube next to the HCl.  
  
"I don't believe this. Is Grace Polk jealous?" Grace glared at him.  
  
"I don't get jealous, Girardi. Espically not over the love between two science geeks."   
  
"Come on, she's my friend," Luke said as the lunch bell rang. Grace grabbed her books and walked outside. Luke followed.   
  
"I sware if you do not leave me alone I will cut you open, rip out your organs and throw them at your bloody dead body!" Grace growled. Once out on the side yard for lunch, Luke grabbed Grace's shoulder.  
  
"Grace.." Grace turned around.  
  
"Do NOT touch me!" she snarrled.  
  
"Come on, just listen to me. She kissed me. I do not like her like that, I don't love her," Luke said, still following behind her. She gave him the finger.  
  
"I love you Grace!" he yelled. Grace stopped walking and turned around. The people who had heard stopped talking and looked over them. Freidman was one of them.  
  
"You what?" Grace asked, never moving. Luke then realized what he had said. Some people were still watching them.  
  
"I said, I love you Grace," Luke told her.   
  
"Uh.." she said, before turning around and walking off school grounds. 


	17. Finding Grace and Adam Returns

Authors Note: You asked for it, you got it. Thanks for the reviews! Oh, and Hannah, you'll see how the hippie thing I told you about at lunch fits in. ^~  
  
17. Finding Grace/Adam's Return  
  
No one was suprised when Grace didn't return to school that day. Freidman approched Luke.  
  
"Dude, I thought I knew you," he said, shaking his head.  
  
"Go away." Freidman walked away, passing Joan who was swinging her car keys. She walked up to her brother.  
  
"I'm in the mood for a cheeseburger. Wanna come?"   
  
"Sure. I need to get out of here. People are still looking.." Luke said.   
  
"What happened?" Joan asked.  
  
"I'll tell you in the car." The Girardi's walked into the parking lot and climbed into Joan's car.   
  
"I told Grace I loved her," Luke said to his sister.  
  
"You told Grace you loved her?!" Joan asked.  
  
"Accually.. I yelled it at her.. And half the school heard."  
  
"No wonder you wanted to get out of there. So, what'd she do?"   
  
"She said uh and left," Luke said as his sister pulled into the McDonalds parking lot.   
  
Monday morning arived after a long, boring weekend. Grace wasn't in school. The three seater desks were back in the chemestry room. Joan and Adam sat down at their table.  
  
"It's weird to be back, yo," Adam said to Joan.   
  
"I get it," Joan said.  
  
"Hey, Joan, are you still mad at me?" Hearing him say Joan almost made Joan cry.  
  
"No. I'm fine with this," Joan lied.   
  
"You sure?" Adam asked. Joan smiled a little.  
  
"Unchallenged."  
  
The whole week went on the same way. Joan and Adam ate lunch together and talked, not as much as they did before the accident however, and Adam didn't call Joan Jane once. And Grace never showed up. When lunch period rolled around on thursday, Luke walked over to where Adam and Joan were sitting.   
  
"Joan, can you do me a really big favor?" he asked.  
  
"You want me to drive you to Grace's?" Joan asked.  
  
"Yeah," Luke said. Joan nodded.  
  
"I'll be back," she told Adam. He nodded and Joan and Luke walked to the parking lot. Minutes later they were infront of Grace's.  
  
"I'll find a way back to school," he told her, closing the door. She nodded and drove off. Luke prayed Grace's father wasn't home, and he rang the doorbell. No answer. He heard a loud crash from the back yard, and heard Grace curse. He walked around to the side of the house and opened the back gate. He looked around the backyard and saw a huge shed, a bunch of trees, huge scraps of metal, and a bright pink VW Van with hippie flowers all over it. (A/N: Don't ask) He didn't see Grace. There was another large crash, and Grace swore again. He then saw Grace dragging a big scrap of metal over to the VW and leaned it against the side. She opened the drivers side and climbed in. Opening the back of the van and climbing out, she saw Luke.   
  
"Why are you at my house?" she asked, picking up a mallet and slamming it against the metal until it was bent in a 90 degree angle.   
  
"Why haven't you been in school all week?" Luke asked.   
  
"I've been busy," Grace told him, placing the bent metal against the fence.  
  
"Look, about what happened on friday.." Luke started, walking over to Grace. She sat down on the back of the van.  
  
"What about it?" she asked. Luke sat next to her.   
  
"Sorry about that."  
  
"Caught up in the moment of screaming at me?" Grace asked. Luke shook his head.  
  
"No, I ment every word of it."  
  
"Yeah well, I did mean everything I said, except for the part about throwing organs at you. That's a little gross even for me. So if you could- Wait, what?!" Grace asked, taking in what he had said.  
  
"Grace, I love you."  
  
"You can't love me. We don't even know each other."  
  
"Sure we do. You're Grace, I'm Luke."  
  
"Look little dude, we've known each other for five months. That is NOT long enough to.." Grace said, trailing off.  
  
"To what Grace? You feel it too, don't you?" Grace laughed.  
  
"Thank God we're outside, otherwise your ego would put a hole in the celing."  
  
"Funny, Grace. But you do, don't you?" Grace raised an eyebrow.  
  
"You really wanna know what I feel?" she asked. Luke nodded.   
  
"The urge to punch you. Among a few other things."  
  
"What other things?" Grace slammed Luke into the side of the van. Luke was about to say 'oww' when he felt Grace's lips on his. Grace felt Luke's tounge against her lips and she pulled back.  
  
"Hold on there horn dog," she said. She grabbed the handle of the back of the van door and pulled it closed, then kissed Luke again. She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down onto the bottom of the van. She leaned over him and kissed him again. This time when she felt Luke's tounge against her lips, she parted them, allowing them to each explore the others mouth. Grace felt Luke's hands push the bottom of her shirt up...   
  
Authors Note: I'm 14, so I think it's time to stop. I think you can all figure out what happens next. 


	18. Cha Dude

Authors Note: 124 hours until new Joan of Arcadia episode! *coughs* But who's counting?  
  
18. Cha, Dude!  
  
There was a knock at the back of the van door. Grace sat up.   
  
"If there's any justice in the world that will not be my father," Grace said. A few minutes later, there was another knock. "Where the heck is my shirt?" Grace asked Luke, who was buttoning up his own shirt. The door opened just as Grace located her shirt.  
  
"Cha, dude!" Adam said, closing the door again quickly. Grace pulled her shirt over her head and opened the door again.   
  
"Adam, what are you doing here?!" she asked.   
  
"I came over to see if you were done with the mallet you borrowed a few days ago..." Adam said.  
  
"Yeah, it's on the left side of the van," Grace told him. Adam grabbed the mallet and stuck his head back in the van.  
  
"You two want me to keep that quiet, huh?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, that'd be good, and the metal is over by the fence.." Grace said.   
  
Adam nodded and left. Grace and Luke staired at each other.  
  
"You want me to drive you home?" Grace asked. Luke kissed her.  
  
"Yeah, thanks.." he said. He climbed out of the van and Grace followed.   
  
Luke climbed out of Grace's car and walked up the driveway, when he saw Joan come out of the house.  
  
"I thought I heard a car. Hey Grace! I've got your chem work inside, can you come and get it?" Joan called.   
  
"Sure," Grace yelled back, turning off the car and climbing out. She, Joan and Luke walked into the Girardi house and walked into the kitchen. Joan went to get the books and walked back over to Grace and handed them to her.  
  
"Here," she said.  
  
"I'm not sure if I should say thank you," Grace said, looking at the stack of books. Joan laughed.   
  
"I'll see you at school tomorrow?" Joan said.  
  
"I'll be there.. Probably," Grace told Joan, leaving.   
  
The next day in chemestry, Adam poured a blueish liquid into a beaker, then poured in some purple liquid. There was a puff of smoke, and the liquid turned orange.   
  
"That was susposed to happen.. Right?" Joan asked.  
  
"Yeah. That was susposed to happen Joan," Adam said. She nodded, and poured some yellow liquid into the orange and it over flowed onto the desk.   
  
"That wasn't susposed to happen, was it?" Joan asked. Luke turned around.  
  
"You'll want to clean that up before it eats away at the desk."   
  
"It's going to eat away at the desk?" Joan and Adam asked in unison. They looked at each other and ran off to get paper towles.   
  
"I don't believe they believed that.." Grace said under her breath. She looked up at Luke.  
  
"It wont really eat away at the desk right?" she asked. He shook his head.  
  
"I didn't think they'd believe me.." Grace laughed a little.  
  
"I don't think their brains are operating correctally these days. See, now would be the perfect time for me to use the line 'ugh, teenage love' but recent events have take that away from me." Luke smiled.   
  
"Right." Joan and Adam came back with paper towles and started cleaning off the desk.  
  
"You guys do know I was kidding, right?" Luke asked. They froze.   
  
"Since when did you become scarastic?" Joan asked.  
  
"I think I might be rubbing off on the nerd," Grace said. Joan laughed.  
  
"Well there's a scary thought."  
  
"Hey! We're in chemestry, with chemicals that can eat away at human flesh Girardi. Remember that," Grace said. The bell rang, and students picked up their books and left the class. While Adam, Joan, Grace and Luke were walking down the hall to the lunch room, Price approched them.  
  
"Mr. Rove, my office, now," he said.   
  
"Yo, what did I do?" Price sighed.  
  
"It's not what you did. It's what some one wants you to do." Adam looked at his friends, then followed Price to the office.  
  
"What was that about?" Joan asked.   
  
"I think I've got a feeling.." Grace said.   
  
"Really? What?" Grace shifted her books.  
  
"NYU," she said, walking ahead of Joan and Luke.  
  
"NYU? New York University? We're in tenth grade, what would a college want with Adam?" Joan asked her brother.  
  
"It's a little thing called a scholarship Joan," Luke said. They entered the lunch room, where Luke saw Grace at the soda macheans. "Now if you'll excuse me.." Joan watched her brother walk over to Grace. She entered the lunch line and made it half way down when she saw lunch-lady-God.   
  
"Hello Joan."  
  
"Hi.." she said.  
  
"I wont be coming around for awhile, but you're going to be going through some tough stuff soon. And no matter what, you have to let him go," God said, placing some milk on Joan's tray.  
  
"Wait, who? Adam?" Joan asked.   
  
"Next?" God asked. Joan picked up her tray and stormed outside. She was looking for Luke and Grace, until she found them making out on the other side of the quad. She walked around to the front of the school and took a seat on the steps. A moment later and Adam approched.   
  
"Yo," he said sitting next to her.  
  
"Hey Adam, what's up?"  
  
"Nothing. Some people from NYU offered me a full scholarship," Adam said.   
  
"Really? That's cool," Joan said, attempting to sound supportive. Adam took a bite of his sandwitch.  
  
"I turned them down."  
  
"Why?!" Joan asked.  
  
"See, they wanted me to take it right now. I'm in tenth grade, I'm not ready to go to college."  
  
"Oh," Joan said as they ate in silence. 


	19. One Very Drunk Night

19. One Very Drunk Night  
  
Authors Note:This chapter contains underage drinking. Also, I have a feeling that a lot of people wont like this chapter. Heck, I wrote it and it makes me mad. Like ----. ---- makes me very mad... Erg!!  
  
Monday morning, Joan ran downstairs and into the kitchen.   
  
"Where's the phone?!" she asked. Will looked at his daughter.  
  
"You're holding it."  
  
"No, this is the one from my room! I need the other one! I'm on a mission!" Joan said. She hit the 'off' button and punched in some numbers. The other end rang.   
  
"Eek!!!!! It's ringing!!!" Joan yelled. Kevin sat a glass of juice on the table and looked at Luke.  
  
"I have no idea," Luke said. Joan yelled again.   
  
"I'm caller eighteen?????!!!!!!!!!!!"   
  
"Joan, what are you talking about?" Helen asked. Joan ran out of the kitchen and returned a few minutes later, practially jumping up and down.  
  
"I WON!!!" she yelled.  
  
"What did you win?" Will asked.  
  
"I won four tickets to the Rooney concert next week!!"  
  
"Who?" Will asked.  
  
"Rooney, their a band," Kevin told his dad.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"It's friday night at nine. Ends at eleven. I can go, right?" Joan asked. Helen and Will enchanged a look.  
  
"Let her go," Helen said. Joan squeeled.  
  
"Alright, you can go. But you and Luke have to get going," Will said, pointing to the clock.  
  
"Woah, we're late!" Joan said. She and Luke got their stuff together and ran to the car.   
  
"So, who's Rooney?" Luke asked. Joan laughed.  
  
"Kevin already told you guys, a band. I've got their CD around here somewhere. If you can find it, feel free to put it in," Joan told him. He found the empty CD case on the floor.   
  
"There's no CD in it," he told her.  
  
"Oh, right, it's back in my stereo. Oh well. Hey, you wanna go?"  
  
"You do realize you just invited me to go to a concert?" Luke asked.  
  
"Well, yeah, besides, it's not like I've got a lot of people to choose from to invite."  
  
"Oh yeah, sub defecive," Luke said, reffering to what Joan had called herself a few weeks earlier.  
  
"Right," Joan said, pulling into the parking lot.   
  
At lunch that day, Joan brought up the concert to Adam and Grace.  
  
"Hey guys, guess what?" she said. No answer.   
  
"Oh, did you accually want us to guess?" Grace asked.  
  
"I'll just tell you. I won four tickets to the Rooney concert on friday. You guys wanna come?"   
  
"Sure," Adam said without looking up from what he was drawing in a notebook.  
  
"Ronney huh? Not totally horriable. Count me in," Grace said.   
  
"Cool. It starts at nine, you guys wanna meet there or go together?" Joan asked.   
  
"Why don't we all just go together? It'd make things easier, yo," Adam said.   
  
"Well, I can't drive, so I agree with Adam," Luke said.  
  
"Sounds like we're all going together then," Grace said.  
  
Friday night the doorbell to the Girardi house rang.  
  
"I wonder who that is," Helen said to herself, entering the living room. She opened the door and saw Adam and Grace. 'Oh yes, the concert.' Helen remembered. She stepped aside to let them in.  
  
"Joan and Luke are upstairs, I'll tell them-" Helen started. She was interrupted by Joan running downstairs, grabbing Grace's arm and dragging her upstairs. Once the girls were in Joan's room, Joan slammed the door shut. Then she walked over to her closet and began throwing clothing to Grace.  
  
"Um, Girardi? What are you doing?" Grace asked, watching the clothing fall at her feet.   
  
"I need help!" Joan said walking over to Grace. Grace looked at the pile of clothing.  
  
"I'll say."  
  
"Funny," Joan said, picking up a green shirt and a black shirt. "Which one?" she asked.  
  
"Which one what?" Grace asked.   
  
"Which shirt do you think Adam will like better?" Grace rolled her eyes.  
  
"Joan, I'm not the person you should be asking, because personally, I don't care."   
  
"Oh, come on Grace! I'm having a delema!" Joan said, collapsing onto her bed. Grace checked the clock.  
  
"Why don't you just wear what you're wearing now so we can get out of here and accually see the concert?"   
  
"Come on Grace! Don't you ever care what you look like?" Grace raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Right," Joan said. She looked down at her red t-shirt and blue jeans. "Okay, okay, I'll just go wearing this." Joan and Grace walked down stairs and saw Adam and Luke sitting on the couch, looking bored. Adam noticed them first.  
  
"You're back," he said.  
  
"Yeah, let's go," Joan said, grabbing a jacket. Joan, Adam, Luke and Grace walked outside and climbed in the car. Joan and Adam in front, Luke and Grace in the back. They arrived at the club where the concert was, and approced a desk where a girl with long dark hair was sitting.  
  
"Tickets?" she asked. Joan handed her the tickets. She ripped them in half and handed part back to Joan, then lowered the sunglasses she had on and looked at the four. "ID's?" she asked. They looked at each other. Joan, Grace and Adam pulled out their drivers licences and handed them to her. She read them, then handed them back. "You three are underage, you're going to have to get stamps. And since you, in the back, didn't give me a licence, I'm assuming you're underage, too." Adam, Luke and Grace looked at Joan.   
  
"What? I didn't know that we were going to get carded!" The girl looked from Joan to Luke to Grace and to Adam, then back to Joan.  
  
"I assume you drove?"Joan nodded.  
  
"I'll cut you guys a deal then, I'll only stamp you," she said. Joan held out her hand, and the girl put the stamp on her.   
  
"Next?" she asked. They entered the club, where a band was on stage preforming. A half an hour later, there was a short break before Rooney came on.  
  
"Yo, I'm gonna go get something to drink, anyone want anything?" Adam asked. The responces were all no, so he walked over to the bar and sat down on one of the chairs. The bartender came over to him.  
  
"Whatdya want?" he asked.  
  
"Um, just a coke," Adam said, putting is money on the counter. The bartender got him his soda and took his money, when the girl from outside sat down next to him.  
  
"Hey, you're the kid from out front," she said. Adam turned to her.  
  
"I'm sixteen," he said, implying that he wasn't a kid.  
  
"I'm nineteen," she told him.   
  
"Oh."  
  
"Hey, I'm Hazel," she told him.  
  
"Adam," Adam said.   
  
"So, Adam, you enjoying the show?" Hazel asked.   
  
"Yeah, it's okay," Adam told her.   
  
"You sound bored."  
  
"A little I guess," Adam admitted.  
  
"Hey, why don't you find your friends and bring them over? We can play a round of I've Never while Rooney's setting up," Hazel suggested.  
  
"Okay," Adam said.  
  
Five minutes later, Adam, Hazel, Joan, Grace and Luke were sitting around a table while Rooney was setting up.   
  
"Rules of the game are, we go around the table and say I've Never, and then something you've never done. Everyone who has done it takes a drink," Hazel told them.  
  
"Sounds like a fun game," Grace joked.   
  
"Hey, it's a great blackmail game, and it's better when everyone has alchohal, so we can all get drunk," Hazel told her. Grace raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Now that sounds interesting." Hazel laughed and looked around.   
  
"Ellie!" she yelled. A blond girl walked over to the table.   
  
"Hm?" she asked.   
  
"Can you get us a pitcher and five cups?" Hazel asked.  
  
"Sure," Ellie said. Ellie walked off and returned with a pitcher and five cups. She placed a cup in front of everyone then filled them. "Need any re-fills, I'll be around."  
  
"Okay, we're set," Hazel told them. They went around the table once, laughing at some of the stupid things each other had done and just having fun. Until it was Hazel's turn again.   
  
"I've never..." she thought for a moment. "Oh! I've never had sex!" Hazel said. Grace and Luke froze. Adam turned to them. Grace stood up, picked up her cup, took a drink and walked away. Luke remained frozen, as Joan turned to her little brother.  
  
"Oh. my. God," she said slowly. Adam coughed a little. Joan turned to look at Adam.  
  
"Did you-?" she asked.   
  
"Cha.." Adam said.   
  
"Well, thanks for telling me!" Joan looked back at her brother. "You're dead. I'm going to go find Grace," she said, walking away.  
  
"Sorry.. That's one of the dangers of the game," Hazel told them. She chugged down the rest of her beer.There was a loud crash from the stage as Rooney launced into their first song.  
  
Joan walked into the bathroom and slammed her purse down on the sink.  
  
"UGH!" she yelled. Ellie and another girl who were touching up their makeup turned to look at Joan.  
  
"Sorry," she said.  
  
"Hey, you're one of the girls from the table. You learn something you didn't want to?" Ellie asked.  
  
"Ah, I've Never. Dangerous game," the other girl said, putting some lipstick on.  
  
"I just learned something I really didn't need to know," Joan said, pulling a brush out of her purse.  
  
"Really? What?" the girl asked. Ellie hit her.  
  
"Brooke, that's none of your buisness."  
  
"My little brother and my best friend slept together," Joan said, sounding disgusted.  
  
"Eech, no wonder you're pissed off," Brooke said. The bathroom door opened and Grace walked in. She saw Joan and turned to walk out, but Joan grabbed her and pulled her to the back of the bathroom.   
  
"How could you have?!" she yelled at Grace. In the front of the bathroom, Brooke turned to Ellie.  
  
"Must be the best friend," she said. The girls left.  
  
Back in the main part of the club, Luke had wandered off, and Hazel and Adam were still at the table drinking.   
  
"So, does stuff like this always happen?" Hazel asked.  
  
"Lately. Life has sinceraly sucked lately," Adam said.   
  
"Really? How?"   
  
"Well, that obviousally, hospitals, breakups, scholarships being turned down, you know, the usual."  
  
"Wow. If only highschool were that exciting when I went there. I would have still dropped out, but I might have felt bad about it," Hazel joked.   
  
"Why'd you drop out, yo?" Adam asked.  
  
"I was in an art show and someone brought some of my work, so I thought if I dropped out I'd get more time to do my art, and then everything you be awsome," Hazel said.  
  
"Dude. I almost dropped out of school because of that, but Joan destroyed my piece to keep me in school," Adam said.  
  
"Thank her. I'm living in a run down apartment with my sister Ellie and her best friend Brooke, working small gigs like this trying to get money to move out and get my GED."  
  
"Sounds like you could use a break, yo," Adam told her. Hazel laughed a little.  
  
"You too," Hazel said. She grabbed the pitcher to pour herself some more beer, but it was empty.  
  
"Wow. We drank all that. We must be really drunk," Hazel told Adam.   
  
"I don't feel drunk," he said. He stood up and went crashing to the ground. Hazel started cracking up.  
  
"Well, maybe just a little," Adam told her, pulling himself up. Rooney changed songs and began playing Shakin. Hazel's eyes lit up.  
  
"I love this song! Hey, you wanna dance?"   
  
"Sure." Hazel and Adam walked over to the dance floor as Joan and Grace walked out of the bathroom.  
  
"I'm just saying it's sick," Joan said.   
  
"Well, you don't see him the way I do," Grace told Joan. Joan laughed.  
  
"Thank God. Okay, I don't care what you and my brother are doing as long as I never have to hear about it ever again," Joan told her.  
  
"Deal," Grace said. She looked around the room.   
  
"So, you wanna go find the guys?" Joan asked. Grace didn't respond. Joan looked over at Grace.  
  
"Hey, what are you looking at?" Joan asked. Grace snapped back into reality.  
  
"Nothing. Come on, let's go look for them, over there," Grace said, trying to pull Joan to the other side of the room.  
  
"What's up with you?" Joan said.   
  
"Nothing! I just think we should.. Look over there.." Grace told her. Joan pushed Grace aside and saw why she was trying to get her to walk away. Adam and Hazel were making out, in ways that should be saved for the bedroom. Joan felt a knife into go into her heart and God's words echoed through her head. Let him go. Is this what God had been talking about? Joan stalked off, keeping her head down so it was less obvious she was crying. Luke broke through the crowd and approched Grace.  
  
"Hey," he said.   
  
"I've got to talk to your sister," Grace told him, running after Joan. 


	20. The End of the Beginnings

20. The End of the Begining  
  
Authors Note: The rest of this story takes place in May 2006 and up. I wasn't gonna put this up until tomorrow, but I decided to put it up tonight. Now, if any of you are still reading my work after that last chapter, let me tell you I HAVE RESONS for doing what I do! I hope you'll be happy with the end of the story, cuz it's coming up in 5 chapters. Enjoy!  
  
Eighteen year old Joan Girardi steped out of her house and into the bright sun light. She threw her head back and smiled. Life was going great. She was graduating in two months, her older brother Kevin had gotten married a few months earlier to Rebecca Askew, Joan had gotten into every college she had applied for, and God hadn't told her to do anything in two years. Since her brother Luke had taken the car to school, and Joan really didn't want to ride with him, she was walking to school. Half way there she was approched by an oh-so-familliar powerwalker.  
  
"Hello Joan," she said. Joan looked at the powerwalker.  
  
"Wow, long time," Joan said.  
  
"Yes, it has been. Joan, you didn't let him go," God said.  
  
"Huh?" Joan asked.  
  
"Adam Rove. Two years ago I asked you to let him go," God said, bringing back painful memories for Joan.  
  
"Yes I did," Joan told God.  
  
"Maybe you've convinced yourself you have, but you still love him. Which is going to make this a lot harder on you. Oh, and Joan, be a good friend to Grace. She's going to need one really soon," God said, walking off.   
  
Joan entered the school and headed for her locker. As she was about to close the door, a hand slammed it shut for her.  
  
"Hello Grace," Joan said. Grace pulled her hand away from the locker and the girls began to walk to their first class.  
  
"He took it," Grace said.   
  
"Who took what?" Joan asked. Grace rolled her eyes.  
  
"Remember how NYU offered Rove that scholarship two years ago?" Joan nodded.  
  
"Yeah, well, he got offered it again yesterday and he said yes," Grace told her.  
  
"Oh. Cool," Joan said.  
  
"He's leaving tonight. You should tell him," Grace said.  
  
"Tell him what?" Joan asked, making Grace roll her eyes again.   
  
"That you love him," Grace said as Luke walked over to the girls. He and Grace kissed and Joan made the treditional 'my brother and my best friend are kissing in front of me, I think I'm gonna be sick' noise.  
  
"Who loves who?" Luke asked, falling in step with Joan and Grace.  
  
"Joan loves Adam. Adam loves Joan. You know, the usual," Grace told him.   
  
"Ah yes," Luke said with a nod. They walked past Adam's locker and he two joined them.  
  
"So, I hear you're going to New York?" Joan asked.   
  
"Guess Grace told you. Yeah, I'm leaving tonight. 9:50," Adam said.  
  
"Well that's cool right? Get to go to college for free and do your art?" Joan said, trying to sound supportive.  
  
"Yeah, I guess," Adam said.  
  
"So, you gonna miss it here?" Joan asked.  
  
"Yeah, I guess I'll miss stuff," Adam told her.  
  
"Like what?" Joan asked. Grace knew where she was going with the conversation.  
  
"Hey Luke, cutting first period?" she asked, leaving to give Joan and Adam some time.  
  
"I could be," he said. In the two years he and Grace had been dating, everyone had noticed they had been rubbing off on each other. Luke had been becoming more rebellious, while Grace had been becoming a little less rebellious. Grace raised an eyebrow and smiled suggestively.  
  
"See you guys at lunch," Luke said as they walked off.  
  
"Does that ever gross you out?" Adam asked. Joan laughed.  
  
"Every day."  
  
The door to the janitors closet opened, causing Luke and Grace to break their kiss.   
  
"Third time this week Miss Polk, Mr. Girardi. I believe that's another detention," Mr. Price said, pulling them out of the closet. Grace and Luke trailed behind Price, heading for the office. He pointed to two chairs.   
  
"Sit while I write you two up," Price said. Helen turned to Price.  
  
"What did they do?" she asked.  
  
"A public display of affection," Price said, walking into his office.   
  
"Techanally, it wasn't. It wasn't in public. Public would be where other people could see. And unless people can see through doors-" Grace pointed out. Price ignored her, and came back out with two detention slips. He handed them to Luke and Grace, then walked back into his office and closed the door. Grace looked at the date on the slip.   
  
"The eleventh?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, it's the eleventh," Helen said.   
  
"Oh my God." Grace stood up and walked out of the office, putting her slip into her pocket as she headed down the hall.  
  
As school let out, Adam, Joan, Luke and Grace walked down the steps like any other day. Adam stopped on the bottom step and turned around, looking at the school. After a moment, he continuted walking with his friends.   
  
"It's weird, yo," Adam said.  
  
"What?"Joan asked.  
  
"It's my last day here. I just feel like there's something left I haven't done yet." Grace shot a dagger look at him.   
  
"Maybe because there is. You know what they say, never leave town when there's something you aren't telling someone," Grace told him.  
  
"Can't say I know that saying," Adam said. Grace stopped and looked at her friends.  
  
"Hopeless! You're both hopeless!! I give up!!!" Grace exclamed, storming off.  
  
"What was that about?" Joan asked.   
  
"I've got a feeling I know," Luke said, heading for the parking lot.  
  
"Hey, Adam?" Joan asked once her brother was gone.  
  
"Hm?"   
  
"I'm going to miss you," Joan said.   
  
"I'll miss you too Joan," Adam said as it began to rain. "Want a ride home?" Adam offered.  
  
"Thanks," Joan said. 


	21. A Sad Song

21. A Sad Song  
  
Authors Note: The song used in this chapter is called When the Rain Falls by Leah Pipes. If you can find it online, I'd reccomed downloading it and listening to it while reading this. Ack. Grace gets outta character from here on down. I tried, I really did, but it just became abnormally hard to write for Grace. Sorry about that. But hey, there's still much needed scarasm, because scarasm rocks, so hopefully that will help a little.   
  
*Oh…oo oo   
  
I don't understand  
  
This should be so easy  
  
To just reach my hand  
  
And know the world is free  
  
But nothing's, as it seems  
  
I can tell you freely  
  
Touching's not the only way to feel*  
  
Joan sat on her bed, looking out the window. The rain was pouring down. A tear rolled down her cheek. She turned to the clock. 9:40pm. His plane would be leaving for New York any minute. If she dove fast enough, she might be able to make it. The scenario in her mind. She would run into the airport minutes before the plane took off.  
  
Adam! Adam turned around and saw her, soaking wet from the rain, and out of breath. He looked directally into her eyes. Jane? He called her Jane. Because he remembered. He remembered everything. Joan ran up to him and they hugged. His flight was called. Adam, don't go. Jane, I can't go. I can't leave you. He would say, kissing her as the plane took off for New York, minus Adam.  
  
Joan let out a sigh. She had been watching too many romance movies. Even if she could make it there on time, that would never happen. Adam just didn't feel the same way about her. She wasn't Jane anymore, no, she was simply Joan.   
  
  
  
*When the rain falls  
  
It's like heaven's crying  
  
When the name's all  
  
The difference that there is  
  
Cause tears are  
  
The same when they are trying to grow something good  
  
Out of all the pain  
  
There's no difference between the teardrops and the rain.*  
  
Adam sat in the Maryland Internation Airport watching the rain fall on the runway below. He took his bag off and placed it on the floor. New York. New York City. It sounded so strange. Maryland. Arcadia. Arcadia was his home. It was where he belonged. So why was he about to get on a plane and fly to the other end of the east coast and leave everything behind. His family, his friends, Joan. Adam let out a sigh. Joan. He was hoping she would show up, but he knew she wouldn't. Adam knew he loved Joan, but he just couldn't. Because in ten minutes, he would be on a plane to New York, starting his new life and leaving Joan Girardi and the pain of his past behind in Maryland.   
  
*I know you probably say  
  
That I'm just talking crazy  
  
To think of life that way  
  
Means that I'm confused  
  
There's happy and there's sad  
  
But maybe yes just maybe  
  
The sadness can make the happiness more true*  
  
The door to Joan's room opened, and Kevin wheeled in. Joan quickly dried her eyes on her arm. Kevin rolled over to her bedside.  
  
"What's wrong Joan?" he asked. Joan shook her head.  
  
"N-nothing."  
  
"Joan, you've been crying. What happened?"  
  
"Adam's leaving tonight. It's no big deal."  
  
"Wait, Adam Rove is leaving for New York tonight, and you aren't at the airport?" She shook her head.  
  
"He doesn't want me there."   
  
"You don't know that. When does his plane leave?"  
  
"Ten minutes."  
  
"If you run, you can make it," Kevin told her. She looked at him with a small smile. Jumping off her bed, she pulled her jacket off her desk chair, grabbed her keys and ran downstairs.  
  
*When the rain falls  
  
It's like heaven's crying  
  
When the name's all  
  
The difference that there is  
  
Cause tears are  
  
The same when they are trying to grow something good  
  
Out of all the pain  
  
There's no difference between the teardrops and the rain.  
  
Because I know the bones were necessary  
  
I don't let it bother me at all*  
  
Adam stood up and picked his backpack off of the floor, putting it on. That's when he saw Joan. She ran over to him, soaking wet.  
  
"Adam!" she yelled.   
  
"Joan?" Joan stopped infront of him.  
  
"I thought I wouldn't make it in time," she said, hugging Adam. The intercom turned on.  
  
"Flight 150 non stop to New York is departing from gate 13, all passangers please board." Adam pulled back from Joan.  
  
"That's my flight." Joan nodded.  
  
"I guess I'll see you around?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah.." Adam said, walking towards the gate. Joan leaned her head against the huge airport windows.   
  
"I love you Adam," she whispered. On the airplane, Adam looked out the window and down at the airport that was becoming smaller and smaller.  
  
"I love you Jane," he said quietly.  
  
*When the rain falls  
  
It's like heaven's crying  
  
When the name's all  
  
The difference that there is  
  
Cause tears are  
  
The same when they are trying to grow something good  
  
Out of all the pain  
  
There's no difference between the teardrops and the rain.*  
  
Meanwhile at Grace's house, Grace looked at the clock on her desk. The numbers changed. 9:50. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and walked into the bathroom, picking up a box and reading the back of it. She set it down.   
  
"Two lines. Please have two lines," she said under her breath, picking up a piece of plastic with a blue line. One. Not two. One. Grace threw it in the trash can and sunk down on the floor. One line. She was pregnet.  
  
*Oh…oo oo* 


	22. The Big Moments

22. The Big Moments  
  
The next morning, Joan was walking down the hall, heading for history, when she felt someone grab the back of her shirt and pull her backwards. She heard a door slam and the person released her. She looked around where she had been pulled into. The school bathroom. She turned around and saw Grace.  
  
"Grace, what was that for?" Joan asked.   
  
"There's something really big I need to tell you," Grace said, her voice a little shakey.  
  
"What is it Grace?" Joan asked.   
  
"I... I'm pregnet," Grace said.   
  
"Oh my God!" Joan yelled. Be a good friend to Grace. She's going to need one really soon.  
  
"Are you sure?" Joan asked. "I mean, did you take the test? Did you do something wrong?"  
  
"Joan, how many ways are there to pee on a stick?!" Grace pointed out.  
  
"Right. Good point. I don't believe you're pregnet."  
  
"Neither do I. I mean, I love Luke, I do, but I'm eighteen. I'm not ready to have a baby."  
  
"Does he know?" Grace shook her head.  
  
"You and I are the only people that know."  
  
"You've got to tell him."  
  
"I know, I'm going to, today. How do you think he'll take it?"  
  
"I'm honestally not sure, but he loves you Grace, I have a feeling he'll take it good."  
  
"I hope so," Grace said, walking towards the door. She stopped and turned around. "Hey Joan?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Hey Luke?" Grace asked, walking up to him during lunch.  
  
"Hey," Luke said. He leaned down to kiss her, but she turned away.  
  
"We need to talk," Grace said. "Alone."  
  
"I don't like the sound of that," Luke said. Grace took his hand and pulled him into the parking lot, which was empty at the time. Grace and Luke made their way to Grace's car and sat down on the trunk.   
  
"There's something really important I need to tell you," Grace said.  
  
"What is it?" Grace took a deep breath. Here we go.  
  
"Luke.. I'm.. pregnet," she told him.   
  
"You're pregnet?" he asked, jumping off the trunk. She too jumped off the trunk.  
  
"Yeah.." she said. He hugged her.  
  
"I love you," he said.  
  
"I love you too." They stepped apart.  
  
"When are we going to tell our famlies?"  
  
"Does that mean you want to keep it?" Grace asked, hopefully.  
  
"Of course Grace," he said. She kissed him.   
  
"I think we should tell our famlies tonight," she told him.  
  
"Well, does Joan already know?" he asked. She nodded.  
  
"How'd she take it?"  
  
"Pretty good. A little creeped out, but pretty good."  
  
"That's probably how Kevin and mom will take it then. My dad? I'm not so sure about."   
  
"I think my dad will be okay with it," Grace said. Luke took her hand and they began to walk back to the front of the school. 


	23. Don't You Hate Family Dinners

23. Don't You Hate Family Dinners?  
  
Authors Note: AIT: Arcadia Institution of Tech. I made it up. It comes in later, so I thought I'd let you know just incase you got confused.  
  
That afternoon, Joan and Grace sat at the kitchen table going over their Year 3 AP Chem homework.  
  
"Ugh. This makes no sence!" Joan yelled, slamming her pen down.  
  
"I know! I wish A-" Grace started, cutting herself off. Thankfully, Joan didn't notice.  
  
"Hey, we've only got two more months left of this at least," Joan said.   
  
"Yeah, thank God. Hey, you decide where you're going?"   
  
"State. Good ol' Arcadia U," Joan said.  
  
"Wow. You had the oppertunity to get out of Arcadia and you didn't take it? Crazy.." Grace said, writing something down.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. So, what about you?" Joan asked Grace. Grace looked up at her.  
  
"Well, I was planning on taking a year off to travel, but that ship has sailed, so I guess I'll apply for state next year," Grace said. Joan nodded.  
  
"Right.. Sorry."   
  
"For what?" Grace asked. Joan wasn't sure how to respond, so she just kept her mouth shut. Helen walked into the kitchen at that moment.  
  
"Oh, hello Grace, are you staying for dinner?" Grace and Joan made eye contact. Joan raised her eyebrow and Grace nodded. A treditional 'secert code' between friends.  
  
"Sure Mrs. Girardi," Grace said.   
  
At dinner that night, Joan, Luke and Grace sat in silence.   
  
"Okay Luke? Joan? Which one of you did something wrong?" Will asked. Joan looked from her brother to Grace, and back down at her food.  
  
"Um.. Mom? Dad? Grace and I have something to tell you guys.." Luke said.  
  
"Oh God. The last time one of our children said that, Kevin and Rebecca got married," Will said to Helen. She laughed.  
  
"I doubt there will be another wedding for awhile," she told her husband, then looked at Luke and Grace. "What is it?" They looked at each other for support, and the room grew silent.  
  
"Just tell them," Joan said under her breath.  
  
"Tell us what?" Helen asked. Grace took a deep breath and spit it out.  
  
"I'm pregnet," she said. The sound of forks dropping on plates was the only noise in the room.   
  
"Joan?" Helen started. Joan stood up.  
  
"I'm all over it," she said, walking out of the kitchen.  
  
"I don't believe this," Will said.   
  
"Trust me, you're not the only one," Grace said under her breath. Helen looked at her son.  
  
"You're going to be a father?"   
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"I don't believe this," Will said again. Defentally in shock that his seventeen year old son and his son's eighteen year old girlfriend were going to be parents. There was silence in the kitchen for what seemed like eternity, until Helen spoke.   
  
"Well, we're here to support you two one hundred precent. And Grace, if you want to talk about anything, I'm here," Helen said. She nudged her husband. "Right?"  
  
"Yeah.. I don't supose you two have a future plan?" Will asked.   
  
"Well, accually, we were sort of talking about it durning lunch, but just the basics like where we're gonna live, and college and stuff," Luke said.   
  
"What did you come up with?" Helen asked, taking a drink.  
  
"Well, we should probably get an apartment," Luke said.  
  
"Because we don't want to free load at my place or here," Grace explained. "And I was going to take a year off from college to travel, but clearly that's out of the question, but I was going to apply for state next year-"   
  
"And I was going to apply for AIT, since MIT's in another state and all," Luke said.  
  
"Sounds like you two had a long lunch hour," Helen said. 


	24. The Natural Order of Things

24. The Natural Order of Things  
  
Authors Note: I've, obviousally, never been pregnet, so I'm just passing over that part, because I have no clue what happens, and honestally, I really don't want to.. And props to my dear friend Hannah for spending all lunch period thinking of baby names with me. Heh. "This is our daughter Fluenza!!" Ah, fun times. Also, props to Evian, and thanks to all you people who reviewed. *hugs*  
  
-9 Months Later-  
  
"So, how's college going?" Grace asked Joan. Joan was home on Christmas break and she stopped by Grace and Luke's apartment almost every day to see how Grace was doing.  
  
"It's cool. It's just.. Missing something, you know?" Joan said, looking at a picture on Grace's desk that had been taken a few years earlier. Joan was sitting on Adam's shoulders, standing in front of a tree grinning like crazy, and Grace was sitting on a tree swing next to them, looking away from the camera. The picture had been taken in Adam's back yard, so one of his sculptures was showing on the other side. Grace looked over at the picture a smiled slightly.  
  
"Got a feelig I know what.." she said.  
  
"Come on Grace, it's been, like, four years since Adam and I broke up, I'm over him," Joan said. Grace nodded.  
  
"I'm sure you are."  
  
"Hey! I am! I haven't seen him in nine months. I'm over it. Seriousally," Joan lied.   
  
"Whatever you say Joan," Grace said. "I guess you wont be too happy with tonight then."  
  
"What's happening tonight?" Joan asked.  
  
"Well. It's a suprise devised by myself and Luke."  
  
"I hate suprises. Can't you tell me? Or.. Give me a hint?" Joan asked.   
  
"I'm not telling you. But, a hint could be okay. I suspose. Since you aren't gonna drop it."  
  
"What is it?" Grace opened her mouth, about to say something, then closed it, then opened it again.  
  
"Joan, I need a really big favor. Can you get me to the hospital? Now?" Joan's eyes widened.  
  
"Oh my God!!" she said.   
  
"Yeah, now please?" Grace asked.  
  
The phone rang at the Arcadia High School office.  
  
"Hello, Arcadia High School?" Helen said into the phone.  
  
"Hey mom!" Joan said, sounding abnormally excited.   
  
"Hello sweetie. Why are you calling me at work?"   
  
"Because you need to page Luke down to the office and tell him to get to the hospital as soon as possiable. He's about to become a father," Joan said.   
  
"She's in labor? We'll be right there," Helen said.  
  
"I've gotta call Rabbi Polonski" Joan said, hanging up the phone.   
  
Three hours later, Joan and Luke sat in Grace's hospital room talking. Evian Girardi had been taken to the hospital nursery, and the Girardi's and Rabbi Polonski had gone down to the nursery to watch their granddaughter. Grace was being forced to stay in the hospital bed for twenty four hours, and Luke and Joan were staying to keep her company.   
  
"I don't believe we're parents," Luke said, taking Grace's hand.  
  
"I know," she said. Joan smiled at her brother and her friend. Grace looked at Luke.  
  
"I just remembered something! Did you--?" Grace started. Luke nodded and looked at the clock, then back at Grace.  
  
"I did. He'll be here," Luke told her.  
  
"Who will be here?" Joan asked.  
  
"Nothing," Grace and Luke said together. The clock numbers changed. 3:59. 4:00.   
  
"Hey Joan? Can you get me a bottle of water?" Grace asked.   
  
"Yeah, sure," Joan told her, pulling a dollar out of her purse and leaving the room.  
  
"I hope this works.." Grace said.  
  
Joan walked out of the hospital room and into the hall. She had taken two steps when she noticed a figure walking towards the room. The figure looked up and saw Joan. They both froze. 'So this was what they were planning..' Joan thought. She felt her stomach turn when he began to walk again, faster this time, reached Joan, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. He then took a step back and took off his hood.  
  
"Hey Jane," he said. Joan felt as if she were about to faint.  
  
"Adam?" she whispered. She walked up to him and hugged him.   
  
"I missed you," she said. Adam ran his hand through Joan's hair.  
  
"I missed you too Jane." Joan pulled back and looked at him.  
  
"You called me Jane twice in the past minute," Joan pointed out.  
  
"I know Jane. There's something I need to tell you. And I'm sorry it took so long," Adam said, looking into Joan's eyes. "I love you Joan Girardi." Joan grinned.  
  
"I love you too, Adam Rove," she said, kissing him.   
  
Back inside the hospital room, Grace and Luke, who of course had been watching, turned to each other.  
  
"We make a good team," Luke said.   
  
"The natural order of things has been restored," Grace said.  
  
"Well, sort of," Luke said. Grace looked at him.  
  
"Huh?" she asked as he pulled something out of his pocket.  
  
"Grace, will you marry me?" he asked. She laughed a little.  
  
"What do you think nerd? Of course I'm gonna say yes," she said. 


	25. The End

25. The End   
  
Authors Note: Sadly, we have approced the last chapter *cries* I hope you liked my story..   
  
-10 Years Later-  
  
The door bell to the Girardi house rang, and Helen walked into the living room, opening the door.  
  
"Hey mom," Kevin said, wheeling himself into the house. Rebecca and their nine year old son, Jason, followed.  
  
"Kevin, Rebecca, I'm glad you two could make it!" Helen said. She hugged the three, then looked down at Jason.  
  
"Liz, Chris and Evian are in the kitchen," she told him as her went off to see his cousins.   
  
"I better go make sure they aren't destroying the kitchen," Helen said, walking into the kitchen.  
  
"Kevin! Rebecca!" Joan yelled, running downstairs. She and Rebecca hugged, and she kissed her brother's cheek.  
  
"Hey Joan," Kevin said. "How's the family?"  
  
"Well.. It's not boring.. Adam sold three sculptures last week, Elizabeth's going through the drama of being in fifth grade, and Chris may only be in third grade, but he already reminds me of Adam, a lot," Joan said.   
  
"I know what you mean," Rebecca said with a laugh.  
  
"Kevin? Rebecca? Can you two help me in here?" Helen called.  
  
"Sure mom," Kevin said, following Rebecca into the kitchen. Joan went back upstairs to her old bedroom and opened the door.   
  
"It's weird being back isn't it?" Luke asked from behind her.  
  
"Yeah. I haven't lived here for eight years. Well, ten if you count when I was living in the dorms. It's sort of creepy that nothing's changed," Joan told her brother, walking into her room which looked the same as it did back in highschool.   
  
"It's like walking into a gap in the space time continium.." Luke said, stepping into Joan's room after her.  
  
"Space time continium?" Joan asked.   
  
"He may be twenty seven, but he's still a nerd Joan," Grace, who had appered in the door way, said. Joan laughed.  
  
"That is true," she said. Grace stepped into Joan's room and sat down on her desk chair, while Joan and Luke sat on the bed.  
  
"I don't believe mom devised this crazy reunion thing," Joan said, picking up a pillow. "They shouldn't allow her to have ideas."  
  
"I think it's sort of cool, yo," Adam said, stepping into the room.   
  
"Believe whatever you need to," Joan told him.   
  
"Joan, Luke, Adam, Grace! Dinner!" Helen yelled upstairs.   
  
Will Girardi, Helen Girardi, Kevin Girardi, Rebecca Girardi, Joan Rove, Adam Rove, Luke Girardi and Grace Girardi somehow managed to squeeze around the dining room table that night, but Jason Girardi, Elizabeth Rove (junior), Chris Rove and Evian Girardi, being normal kids, didn't even attempt it. The four kids had escaped the adults and headed for the living room.   
  
"Just sitting around the table talking about what they did all day? How can they stand that boring stuff?" nine year old Liz asked her cousins.  
  
"They're old, they're weird, go figure," ten year old Evian said.   
  
"Unchallenged," eight year old Chris said. Evian raised her eyebrow in a very Grace like manner.  
  
"You're just like your father. Only shorter," she told him.  
  
"Well, you're just like your mother, only shorter," Chris countered.  
  
"Can't you two ever get along?" Jason asked.   
  
"Yeah," Liz agreed.  
  
"No, we can't," Chris and Evian said together as the doorbell rang. The four looked in the dining room. No one appeared to have heard it. Liz stood up and walked over to the door, opening it. A tall, cute teenager was standing there in a brown coat. He looked down at her.  
  
"Hello Elizabeth." Liz stared up at him.  
  
"Hi?" she asked.  
  
"I'm a friend of your mothers. Could you get her for me?" Liz nodded, then yelled for her mom. Joan walked into the living room.  
  
"Hm?" she asked. Then she looked up at the person standing in the doorway.  
  
"You!" she said, stepping outside and closing the door behind her.  
  
"Long time no see," Joan said.   
  
"Yes, it has been awhile," God said.  
  
"It's a little creepy that you don't age.." Joan pointed out. God laughed a little.  
  
"Joan, I came here to say good-bye," God said.   
  
"Seriousally?" she asked.  
  
"Yes Joan, seriousally. You've grown up, it's time to move on to greater things." Joan laughed.  
  
"I worked for God. I don't think you can go up from there. So, are you going back.. Up there? Or will I like, turn the corner and bam, there's God?"  
  
"You haven't seen the last of me, I'll tell you that. Nor has Elizabeth," God said.  
  
"You're going to start talking to Elizabeth?" Joan asked.   
  
"It runs in the family Joan. And if you ever need anything, I'm always listining," God said, walking down the steps, giving his signature wave. The front door opened and Adam stepped out on the porch. He wrapped his arms around Joan's waist from beind.  
  
"Hey, what were you doing out here?" he asked.  
  
"Saying good-bye to an old... erm... friend.." Joan told him. "Hey, we'd better get back in there before Kevin eats all of our food." She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him.  
  
"I love you Adam Rove," she said.  
  
"I love you Joan Rove," he told her. She smiled.  
  
"I like it when you called me Jane." he took her hand.  
  
"Jane it is then," he told her as they walked back into the Girardi house.  
  
--End--  
  
Authors Notes:  
  
Wow, I'm done writing my story! Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed, and to Barbara Hall for creating the greatest show in the universe. :. I hope you enjoyed reading my story as much as I did writing it. And yes, Kevin and Rebecca's son is named Jason, as in Jason Ritter, who plays Kevin. The same with Joan and Adam's son, who's Chris, as in Christopher Marquette. What can I say, no one ever said that I was unpredictiable. 


End file.
